Ellen Frankfort
The steady rhythm of a pencil drumming the edge of the young
executive's desk seemed to echo in the sparsely decorated public affairs
office. Suddenly the rhythm stopped as
Reeve chucked pencil against the window.
Sighing he pulled himself up out of his leather chair and away from the
tiny monitor he had been staring at for the past three hours. Even from across the room, however, he could
hear the resolve and the pain echoing in Cloud's voice. "We have to do
something, I don't care why they ran of with them, but whatever Shinra has in
mind can't be good!"
Slowly, Reeve moved his fingers in a circular motion around
his temples trying to sooth the throbbing pain in his head. Usually looking at the majestic view from
out of his high-rise office soothed him, but not today.
Usually when he looked out of the window at the shinning
city below he could take comfort in his work.
In the FACT that what he did, that his work, made a positive
difference in the lives of the people who lived in his beautiful city. After all Shinra brought jobs, stability, light…
LIFE…. Decay, destruction, oppression…. Shinra, literally in name God's
Network, was… was WHAT?! He
believed in the company, but for some reason he had come to believe in
Avalanche just as much.
They where his friends - the company was his future…
"Wait, just a minute Reeve!" he shrieked to
himself, "What are you talking about
here… your friends! They don't even
know you - they think you are a talking cat and a giant pink mog for the
Planet's sake!" He gritted his teeth
together as he ended his little out burst.
"For the Planet's sake…" he sighed.
Shaking his head he turned away from the window as the sunset behind him
and the city began to sparkle below as its inhabitants flicked on their
lights. When the automatic timer in
Reeve's office caused the room to suddenly be flooded in a harsh fluorescent
glow Reeve fought back the sudden impulse to rush over to the wall and slam the
light switch down shrieking, "You're sucking SOULS!!"
Mako is a necessary evil, Reeve; you know that, you have
read the reports. All of the scientific
literature on the subject has proven without a doubt that Mako is a cleaner
burning, cheaper, more abundant alternative to coal than anything else. Shinra has proven countless times that Mako
is actually better for the planet than coal.
But of course scientists would sing the praises of Mako, after all who
pays for their research…NO, our scientists have integrity and morals and
standards and, and, and…
Reaching over for a bottle
of aspirin in his drawn Reeve's thoughts trailed off as the image of Shinra's
ever-virtuous head scientist, Hojo, sprung into his mind. He closed his eyes and forced himself to try
to ignore the sound of Cid's voice coming from the monitor as the old pilot and
Barret argued the pros and cons of always traveling in a party of three or some
such tactical thing that Reeve really couldn't give a damn about at the current
moment.
Yea, Hojo is the spitting image of the ennobled scientist
working for the betterment of mankind!
Ha, and I have an old reactor I wanna sell you… That man seriously
scares me; I really don't think he is quite stable… Okay… Reeve focus here you
don't have much time to think about this.
I have to decide right NOW what to do.
I have a group of terrorists…freedom fighters…pissed of people that I am
supposed to be monitoring rushing to the building right now and one hell of a
moral dilemma do deal with here!!!
Okay Reeve, let's make this simple what are your options
here.
Compulsively,
he jammed his hand back in his desk and pulled out a pad of paper and began to scribble
down his options.
1. Pick
up the phone and call Tzeng and let him know we are about to have a situation
in the lab
2. Help
Cloud – give him codes – tell him where to go – make sure Avalanche has a
strait run to the lab
3. Do
nothing
4. Jump
out the window
Tapping
his pencil he stared at the list for five minutes then crumbled it up and
tossed it in the trashcan. As he stood
up to migrate back over to the window his elbow knocked the magic eight ball
off the edge of his desk. Sighing he
reached down and retrieved the black sphere.
As
he rolled the toy around in his hand his mind wandered back to the day he had
gotten the damned thing. He had just
been hired to work at the company and was never more proud of himself.
His
family was congratulating him and suddenly his grandpa pulled him off to the
side and handed him a brown paper lunch bag saying, "Here I want you to have
this, boy."
Reeve
had smiled and laughed when he looked in the bag.
"Thanks
Gramps, but I do have a degree in economics and businesses administration, so I
don't think I'm going to be needing a magic eight ball to help me out in the
office."
The
old man had laughed back at him and said, "You never know…"
Still
fidgeting with the toy Reeve looked back at the window at the glowing city
below.
I don't know if what the
company is doing to the planet is right or wrong and I'm not willing to turn my
back on it now because the ramblings of some old man with a telescope in Cosmo
Cannon, but I do know whatever Hojo is doing in the lab is wrong…
He
stroked his goatee and rubbed his eyes.
I'm not ready to give up on
Shinra yet, but I am not going to help Hojo out in one of his mad little
experiments either. Hell, I'm sure
Tzeng is pretty tired anyway – the man works hard he should take the night off
every now and again. Besides, I'm kinda
looking forward to seeing the look Hojo's face when Cloud shoves his sword up
his ass…ha... ha… it really couldn't happen to a nicer man…
Besides not telling is not really
like betraying the company… its just being incompetent.
But, giving Cloud codes and
making sure the Turks are occupied IS betraying the company…
Nervously,
his looked down at the toy in his hand, "What do you think? Should I give should I betray my company or leave
my friends high and dry… what let me rephrase that… should I give Avalanche a
little helping hand just this once?"
Timidly he shook the ball, but instead of an answer the edge of the triangle
appeared balanced perfectly between "Yes" and "No." Sighing heavily, he went back to the monitor on his desk. Once more he shook the ball and this time it
answered with a resounding "Yes."
Shoving a stack of manila envelopes stamped "Confidential – Project Key
Stone" aside he grabbed a small microphone and turned back to the monitor.
You are just doing this one
little thing Reeve – you will have plenty of time to prove your loyalty to the
company LATER.
He
breathed deeply and raised the device to his lips, "Heya Cloud…"
***Author's
Notes***
Well,
there ya go – Chapter 2!! Kinda short -
but the chapters are going to start getting a wee bit longer from here on
out! I wanta thank EVERYBODY who gave
me a review – my ego thanks you too heh heh heh! As always I crave suggestions, feed-back, praise, and
constructive critism (just don't be too mean =) okay!) and am not above begging
for it! Author drops to her knees
Please!!!! Oh, and Kree – my coconspirator
in all things diabolical I wanta thank you for bugging the hell out of me and
making me type something instead of talking about what I planned to write –
without your constant nagging I don't think I would ever get anything constructive
done – not that that's a bad thing!
Oh,
and next time you can look forward to some more Vincent and Aeris!!
With
that - Adieu!!
