Bloodwitch Raven - Not sure if this chapter is what you expected... this part's the interim between two arcs, so I'm struggling a bit getting the chapters out. Some Arien and Reno interaction here.

Echo the Ethereal Swordmaster - The Black/White/Silver arc is fairly easy to write. The hard thing is writing Arien and Reno, since in ACC Arien won't show up when Reno's on camera.

A day late... but...

Chapter 37: The Hunters in the Snow

Two hours passed, and Arien walked back to the meeting place, her feet complaining. Usually a two hour walk would have been nothing, but the icy tunnels had the floor that could have easily been converted into an ice skating rink, and the placement of the feet, the distribution of the weight, the constant tension had tired her out. It didn't help that she hadn't brought any footwear to walk in the snow. She would have packed it if she had a little more time, but all she could do was to throw her uniform on and dash out. Literally.

The walls pulsed with green life, a steady thrum like a heartbeat. She marked the wall with her knife as she went by, so that she would not get lost; the walls, the floor, the ceiling were all smooth, as if some very large creature had burrowed underground and had made this network of tunnels, but she knew that wasn't the case. It looked like Reno's suspicions were right about how these tunnels were made. It probably would have made a nice tourist attraction, if it wasn't so fraught with innate perils that made venturing down here more of a biohazard rather than anything else.

Well, at least the mapping was done.

When she got back, Reno was already there, leaning onto the wall. "Took you long enough," he said. His eyes looked green with all the light reflected around him, giving him an unhealthy pallor. "You okay?"

"My feet are killing me."

"You're wearing leather loafers," Reno pointed out.

"I know, I know. They make this entire place into a skating rink." She pulled out a laptop and her phone. "Do you have your map?"

"Yeah." Reno pulled out a peace of paper from his pocket. It was a crude drawing, just lines, but it was enough for her; she snapped the photograph, then connected her phone with a cable to the laptop, then began editing the image. A few moments later she uploaded her own half, and began the task of connecting both in the image editor so that it would create one, coherent map. Which was harder than she had anticipated; the lines didn't necessarily match, so she had to make do with some fudging over, and it was probably grossly out of scale in some places. But she persisted, trying to string some coherence into the scribbles.

Reno decided to take a nap.

Arien said nothing as Reno simply lied down and closed his eyes. She was used to Reno resting while she worked; after all, she needed a lot more prep work than the redhead, and while all the prep work allowed Arien to get one mission done in a day, Reno managed to get three cleared off the to-do list and still have time to nap and go party. The total amount of work they did was about on par with each other, although the way they distributed their energy and time was far different, with Reno doing it in quick, explosive bursts, and Arien far more steady but with less gusto.

That, and he didn't have anything else to do, really.

An hour later, he was awoken with a tiny 'ting' from his phone, which was enough to jerk him into wakefulness. His eyes opened, and he jerked to attention immediately, reaching for his phone. Arien had already closed the laptop and was sitting next to him, riffling through the bag. "I just sent you the map," she explained. "We should probably eat before starting the next part."

"What did 'Laney pack?"

Arien pulled out a box. Reno looked at it with distaste. "Granola bars? Did she really think I can live on this bird feed?"

"You have to. There's no other food." She threw a bar into his hands. "Eat up."

Reno chewed in silence for a while, then spoke. "I think this thing's gluing my mouth shut. And it tastes like shit."

Arien didn't answer. Her mouth was too full of toffee and popped rice and nuts.

"I think your mouth is glued shut."

Arien continued to chew. Or at least, she seemed to be trying. It didn't seem to be going too well. Her eyes became crossed as she tried to unstick her jaw, and he laughed as she yanked on her chin. She finally managed to free her mouth from the toffee, but then looked at the half-chewed granola bar in distaste.

"I think I'm done for now," she said.

He laughed again, a purr-like chuckle, then chewed on his own food, taking care not to get his mouth stuck. Arien sucked down some water from the bottle. It took merely minutes before Reno had finished his sparse meal, and then a few minutes more to pack up and get going. Their task wasn't done yet, and they had some distance to cover; Reno dragged the boxes behind him, and Arien began placing them along the path, following the map, spacing them so that they would be somewhat evenly distributed. She had her doubts, but she had to make do, and taking actual measurements wasn't something either of them felt up to. The bone-chilling cold was slowly settling in, and the faster they finished this task, the better.

They moved in silence, not really up for small talk. Slap. Arien bent down and slapped the small disc onto the side of the flow, where the Lifestream flowed like a river, its waves lapping against the icy ridges slowly, sluggishly, as if it was more viscous than water. She got up, then walked some few feet. Slap. As she went around, slapping the motion sensors on, she checked her phone to see whether they were online, exchanging those that were dead with the live ones. They weren't battery operated, but some motion sensors were just plain dead.

"How're they?" Reno asked as he handed her another sensor.

"Most of them are active. But not this one." She handed back the circular disc, with one opening blinking, its lens eye black. The tiny LED above the lens refused to come to life, despite Arien pressing on the button to switch it on. He dropped it into the box, then handed her another one. Slap.

They went down the left path, Arien setting up the sensors, then took a break for five minutes. The work was tedious; it was check and slap, check and slap, and midway Arien's phone battery died, and she had to take Reno's to continue. The conversations were sparse, their work sluggish, but they went on in the icy tunnels.

It was a long walk, a circular walk, a silent walk. It was a walk of trepidation, for they were both aware that what they were looking for perhaps should not have been dug up, but rather buried and forgotten for all eternity. But an order was an order.

Obedience. It was their creed; they were the limbs of Rufus Shinra. But they were not entirely without their own will, so they were apprehensive, silently, without telling each other, but understanding each others' fears. They refused to call it nervousness, but they were aware of it, just by a glance, a slight expression.

The calamity from the skies, the Ancients had once called it. Perhaps what they were doing was that which had destroyed their city. Perhaps what they were doing now was what the hubris that made the planet put the humans back into its place.

Slap, went the hand as she slapped another disc. Reno was not sure if this was a slap against the nature, telling it that the humans will not be defeated, or a slap from the planet for the humans daring to do that which was forbidden.

The Black watched.

It was easy to sense the two mortals wandering around in the icy tunnels where the Lifestream once flowed to heal the wounds humanity had dealt to its mother. For one, he sensed his mark on one of them, a slender woman dressed in a black suit. He vaguely recalled seeing her in his past life, but the memory was hazy, like someone else's dream. Her eyes were blue-grey, clear, alert, but there was his own mark, clear, the sign of despair, of death. She was long-limbed, her hair dark and long, her gaze with the focus that piqued his interest. Slightly. Only ever so slightly. He also sensed a familiarity with her, nothing that he recognised, but as if he shared a bond with her. Not a strong one that he had felt with Cloud Strife. It was barely a strand, so to speak, so faint that it felt as if it was about to break. But it was there.

The redhead he sensed better In a way and worse in other; better, because his life was so vivid, so vibrant, that he was almost like a beacon of light. His thoughts were rapid, jarring, flickering, jumping from one place to another. But the sense of the male was also worse than the female's, because the male lacked the bond that he had with the female. That single tether, a shared something. The male was also slightly familiar from his past, the flaming red hair piquing something from his scant reservoir of his memories, his cat-like aquamarine eyes. His movements were graceful, but with only the grace of a predator waiting for its prey.

The Black could see every wound the two had ever received, the bullet wound that had made a clean exit through the male's shoulder, leaving a puckered scar. A lucky hit; one finger's breadth lower and the male would have lost the use of his arm. There were more bullet scars on both their bodies, the female's faint, almost invisible to mortal eyes, the male's more profound. There was a single slash across the female's lower arm, possibly from a blade, lacerations on the male's abdomen. These were fighters, familiar to combat, death, the simple snuffing of the tiny blinks of light that he could sense.

The White also knew the redhead, but not the female. The redhead had been one of her guardians once, guardians, or hunters, who had agendas of their own. Agendas, plans, none of them really acceptable in the society that the White had been in. But she also knew that the redhead, despite what he had done, despite the people that he had snuffed out, was not a bad person. Cruel circumstances had twisted him into this finely honed blade, sharp as a stiletto and just as deadly, but it was not the blade's fault for being a blade.

The Black and the White watched, each wary of one another and the two mortals. The two were out of the tunnels now, and were discussing something. There was a swarm of people near where they were, new lives that had come. There were already many people who had lived in the place for years, but now, more people were coming, one by one, then a trickle. They both sensed the distress of the people a few days ago, as if something had happened to them and that something was causing them distress. But they weren't sure what had happened. In the Lifestream, away from mortality, it was hard to gauge what sort of thing was happening, things trivial but important to those who lived.

"I don't like this," the female was saying.

"Well, neither do I, but orders are orders."

"I still don't like it." The female insisted. "Look, I know we've done some fairly bad things, but this? This is asking for trouble. We didn't exactly dig this thing up the first time, so at least we weren't to blame for that. But this time? We've already screwed around pretty heavily with our luck. What the hell happened here, anyway?"

"Icicle Lodge had a pretty bad fire," said the redhead.

"Was this when you guys were here a few days ago?"

"Yeah. The guys who don't look like they're dressed for the weather… they must have come to help out." There was a pause, and the redhead stood up, held his hand up, signalling her to be quiet.

Arien, who was unaware that there were at least two entities watching her move, stood up as well. "What?" she asked, barely above audible.

"Someone's here," Reno mouthed, "and they're talkin'."

Arien stood up without a sound. They had been sitting down near one of the burned-down houses, far away enough from where the majority of the people had thronged, to avoid encounters who still remembered the Turks as heartless killers. They had been come to the Icicle Lodge area after Arien realised that she'd need a better reception to start the process to send the data to Healin. So they had gone to Icicle Lodge area only to see that the place had gone up in flames some days before. The tower was still intact, since it had been some distance away from the actual village, but there were a lot of people going to and fro and that made hiding somewhat difficult.

Arien frowned, then leaned forward. Together, they hid behind one of the walls that had survived the blaze, eavesdropping. 'Eavesdropping is rude' had been defenestrated some time ago when Arien had become a spy.

But then, she wished she hadn't remembered to throw out that particular rule.

"Eliane," said a masculine voice. Arien's frown deepened. Eliane had been her mother's name, and while it was not completely unique, it was rare enough that she hadn't met anyone named Eliane since her mother's death. Eliane DeVir had died long ago, and it was only when her daughter had been determined to die that the spirit, or what remained of it, had cobbled together what could be called a sense of self within the Lifestream to prevent her from giving up.

"Wasn't Eliane your mum's name?" Reno hissed in her ear. Surprised that he had remembered, Arien looked up, and nodded. The piece of the fall she was holding onto cracked with a sharp noise, and the two immediately pressed themselves against the wall, but evidently the people they were spying on hadn't noticed. And why should they? The place was so far away from the village that no one was around. Or shouldn't have been around.

"Oh, Myers," said the feminine voice, so like Arien's that Reno almost looked at the woman pressing her head against the crumbling wall. "I missed you."

Reno and Arien looked at each other, mirroring each other's expressions.

"Myers?" Reno mouthed.

Arien now looked alarmed. She slowly crawled on all fours, peeking around the corner. Then she jerked back, yanking Reno back with her. They crawled on all fours, Reno absolutely clueless, until she seemed certain that they could stand up and not be observed. Then, she began to run.

"Wait, wait!" Reno chased after her. He was much faster than her - he was, after all, the fastest in the squad - and he overtook her without a problem. He caught the tail of her jacket, yanked, and caught her in his arms when she stumbled and nearly fell backwards. He mentally made a note to not pull so hard. Rude was like a rock and he was too used to dealing with him, but Arien was lightweight. He needed to adjust.

"You okay?"

"Oh god." She was trembling. "Oh my god."

"Calm down, DeVir. What the hell happened?"

She gasped, her eyes open wide, her face showing petrified fear. She shook her head, inhaling, then exhaling, trying to calm herself, but she trembled still, and her teeth chattered. He heard the grit of her teeth as she tried to regain control, felt her arm muscles tense against the palm of his hands as she clenched her fists. But it still took a while for her to calm down.

"DeVir, report."

"That was Myers, Reno," Arien whispered. Her whisper was nearly drowned out in a gust of wind that stirred up the dust and ash, and she coughed. "That was my father."

"Your dad's here?"

She bobbed her head. "Why is he here? What the hell is he doing here? And why? What's going on?!"

"Hold your horses. Where was he?"

"Just on the other side. Oh god." She panicked. "And who the hell was that?! That wasn't my mother! What the hell was that?! Why did my father think that was my mother?!"

"Wait, wait. What?!" Reno tried to rewind the conversation, but she continued to panic.

"What was that thing? Who was that thing? Is that even human?!"

"DeVir!" He shouted. "Take a deep breath. What do you mean, 'who the hell was that'?"

Arien took a deep breath, then buried her face in his chest for a few moments, which ended up with her getting uncomfortable with the standing position and straightening, making her left joint pop. She had marginally calmed down, however. "I saw my father speaking to some… thing."

"Something?"

"It wasn't a human," was her response. "No human looks like that."

"Look like what?"

"Silver," was her fearful response. "The… thing had silver hair…"