A/N: And finally... Reeve. Yay!

Part VIII: Sitting On My Shelf

Cait whirrs to life and lets out a disjointed meow. I sigh as his circuits bite my fingers in retaliation to my pliers. He's been damaged. All the fighting he does isn't good for something originally designed to hand out free candy to kids.

"How do you feel, Cait?"

The autopilot whirls the mog's arms ridiculously before the cat opens its mouth. "I feel fine! Meeeow-wow-wow-wowwwelcome to Gold Saucer!"

I sigh again. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm gonna have to turn ya off for a little while, buddy."

"Rogerrreeve!" The mog's eyes dim and the fluffy ears stop twitching. Cait Sith hangs limp, as though I've cut his strings.

"But I'll tie them back together in a little while, okay?" I don't know what it is about engineering that makes you talk to yourself. It's a lonely existance between me and the blueprints, I guess. I gave Cait and his brothers voices because of that, maybe. I don't know.

Cait says Cloud sent him back to think about whether he wanted to fight Sephiroth any more. Nice, for Cloud to give that liberty to a robot. And Cait wants to fight because I do - I gave him that much of myself. I like to make people laugh. I like to see people happy. That was why I made Cait - not as a spy, but as a fortune teller. A moogle and a cat. Things from my childhood. Things that made me laugh.

There's not much to laugh at in Midgar any more. But on bad days at the company, I could hear the carnival music through Cait Sith and listen to the children laughing as he performed a wacky stunt. Yeah, that's the kind of life I lead. I have to spy on kids to listen to laughter.

The life of a Shinra Exec.

So, why do we want to fight, Cait? I'll tell you why. Because this isn't life; this isn't living. Living is way more than this. The people here in the slums - yeah, I live in the slums, too; can't stand to be above the places I grew up in - they don't have a future if I can't give it to them. They don't have lives if I can't get rid of that stupid plate that I designed when I was young and idealistic. Cait and I, we're fighting for the people of Midgar. For the lives, for the homes, for the future of those people.

Just like we've always been.

I flick the switch, enter the code. Cait waves his arms and declares "Mrow!" with far more certainty than last time. The black and white feline adjusts his cape, tips his crown at a jaunty angle and the mog jumps up and down a few times to limber up. Cait throws his hand out with the megaphone tightly gripped in the gloved paw.

"Yeeeah! That's better. Thanks boss."

I smile. I managed to program manners into this one. "No problem, Cait. You'd better get going - gotta get back to the Highwind before Cloud leaves withoutcha."

Cait bounces and spins like a top. "Naw. I got plenty of time before I hafta get back to the ship." His little feline eyes gleam. "Tell your fortune?"

~*~

A/N: The end. :)