By Ktrenal
Chapter Sixteen - Lies Within Lies Surrounded By Half-Truths
Beginning now to understand the nature of the world in which he'd found himself, he wasn't particularly surprised by the appearance of the commercial and industrial region of Midgar; it only took a small amount of prediction to realise what he'd find. It would be small shops and workshops lining the streets, closed at the moment, although he could imagine their appearance when they were open. They would be cramped together, sharing the limited space in front of their premises in a friendly, amicable manner.
And strolling down a side alley, he peered into the windows of one of the back street workshops, catching the scent of stale smoke on the wooden frames holding the smudged glass in place. It was in these shadowed alleys that he expected to encounter apothecaries, and the lairs of alchemists. Somewhere, too, there would be someone experimenting with Mako; there just had to be.
Reno could recognise easily enough that everything here was closed, but all he needed to do was find the correct workshop, and from there locate the home address of its owner. This required a moment of thought as he considered his search options; a logical pattern would provide him with the information he needed sooner than random wandering. He soon settled in a simple motion, walking up one alley, and then down the adjacent one, tracking a zig-zag course through the commercial district.
As he pursued this goal, he let his mind wander once again, although this time following a specific train of thought. He'd realised that giving out information regarding the nature of Mako, and the Planet, would perhaps be changing the future, which would, without a doubt, be a very bad thing. But then, with that said, the realisation had also occurred that perhaps his presence here was something that was meant to happen, and so, therefore, was the sharing of the knowledge he carried.
This would mean that, if he were to avoid telling anyone of what he knew, he would be changing the future that way, instead. And he didn't even want to consider the possibility of a world in which Mako had never been utilised as a power source. Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing, but he was aiming to get back to the life that he knew. He didn't want to return home only to find that it was barely more advanced than this. The future was, broadly speaking, something like hell, but to Reno it was home.
Which left him no choice about his actions here; he'd have to share his knowledge, and hope that act did not unravel the universe or something similar. But, with that duly considered, he realised that if he made a mistake, and everything ceased to exist, then he wouldn't exist to know that he'd made the error. Or else he'd be floating in a void of nothingness, on his own for the rest of eternity, without even the butterflies to keep him company. Or, and this was the one that really confused him, if the universe unraveled, and he faded from existence, then he wouldn't have been able to cause the universal unraveling. And if he wasn't there, then it couldn't have happened. Which would result in him existing once more. But if he existed, then he'd destroy everything with his actions.
Even thinking about it gave him a few feelings of uncertainty, leading to the question, for a moment or two, of if he actually existed now. Considering he was able to ask that question, it probably meant that he did exist. Or he thought he existed, which was probably close enough. I think, therefore I am, Reno reflected, mulling the words over in his mind. Or, I think I'm thinking, therefore I might just possibly be.
He shook his head, banishing the thoughts from his mind. The last thing he needed to be doing right now was questioning his existence. It reminded him of someone he'd been sent to kill a few years ago; after breaking into the man's house, he'd encountered the target standing in the middle of the kitchen. He'd said something along the lines of 'I don't exist, so you can't kill me!'. Reno had just laughed, and shot him through his apparently non-existent brain. Or not so apparently; anyone who thought such a ploy would work against a Turk obviously was lacking in cranial activity.
No, Reno himself was not that stupid. He'd received more than enough life experiences to confirm the fact that he did actually exist, and his own mind creating a paradox to add to his problems was not going to shake that firm belief. He existed, and the world would just have to deal with it.
It was just as he reached that particular decision that he paused in his steps, lifting his head a little to smell the familiar scent of Mako on the air. There was nothing else quite like it; the luminescent green lifeblood of the Planet smelled of nothing. It was the kind of nothingness that blocked out every other odour on the air, leaving a strange kind of void where his sense of smell had been a moment or two before.
From his previous experiences with Mako, Reno knew the source of it couldn't be too far away, and even then, it was probably only a small quantity; if he concentrated, he could still make out the smell of the city behind the stench of nothingness. Reno couldn't help but imagine what the response to the odour would be; the people of this time seemed to be so used to the heavy smells on the air that they ignored them, even when it sent the red-head almost gagging in disgust, save for his tight control over his physical reactions. To them, the smell, or more appropriately lack thereof, of Mako was probably something entirely strange and foreign to them.
But to one who'd grown up in Midgar, accustomed to the all-invasive scent of nothingness, it was a more than welcome assault to his olfactory senses. He took a deep breath, filling is lungs with the total absence of smell, before exhaling once again in a distinctly satisfied manner. It was a pleasant experience, in a way; just a little reminder of home, although that in itself, while increasing the urgency of finding a way to return to his own time, also served to increase those half buried feelings of home-sickness.
Since it seemed the most sensible way, Reno sniffed the air again, following his nose to the Mako, which he knew couldn't be far away. And soon enough, his sense of smell brought him to the front of a tiny little workshop, tucked away between two larger shops. It seemed almost hidden away, just a single small door, flanked by a tiny window that was so grimy that he couldn't see through the glass into the shop within.
But the door held the information he needed, a small plaque of tarnished bronze bore the name of the one who used this workshop, and was evidently the person he needed to see. At first, the name surprised him, but then he realised he should have predicted this all along. Who else would be working with Mako, after all? But clear as day, the plaque bore the name of Heinz Gast, Sr.
It gave him a time frame of when in history he had strayed to, as well. The Heinz Gast that had worked for Shinra on the Mako experiments had been Gast Jr., the son of this man, it seemed. So, with a few brief mental calculations, Reno guessed that placed him about fifty years before his time. It was further back than he had first thought, but it made sense, considering all that he had seen. Why else would the world he was now in be so different to the one he had known?
Not that he needed to worry too much about it now, of course. Beneath Gast's name, the title of 'Inventor and Explorer', and the address of the workshop itself was a line of tiny text giving the home address of the man. And that was all the information Reno needed. He committed the address to memory, although realised after a moment that he had no idea where 'Western View Street' actually was. In Midgar of his time, the streets were named primarily by an assigned number, and then by their Sector. There was none of this pretty name business.
Still, now that he had a name for the street, he could simply stop the next person he encountered wandering the streets and ask for directions. It wasn't something he was often inclined to do, since there was the entire pride issue involved with getting help of the navigational type, but Reno was also intelligent enough to realise that sometimes not being lost was more important than his ego. Besides, it wasn't like anyone he knew would have any idea he'd asked for directions. And the opinions of those he didn't know counted for virtually nothing.
Casting one more look at the workshop, and committing its location to memory, he turned away, following the course of the narrow alley to return to one of the larger streets. It was on these main thoroughfares that he would encounter someone to ask directions, after all, and it was easier to work out which way he needed to go on his own from the larger streets. Western View Street, if he guessed correctly, would be on the western side of the city, facing out into the countryside beyond the edges of town. Old names were easy enough to decipher when viewed with a little intelligence.
So he set off in that direction, moving casually through the streets. Later on, he realised, he would have to take a visit to the stables adjoining the hospital. Butterfly was probably wondering what had happened to him by now. And he would be needing her again, he guessed. When he'd come back in time, his actual location hadn't changed, and so when he went forward once more, the last place he wanted to end up in was Midgar of the future. He'd be stuck underneath a huge rock or something similar. It would be much better to return to his time in a place he knew would be safe. No where struck him as an obviously safe area at the moment, but perhaps later he would have a little inspiration.
First he had to actually know for certain that he could get home. He didn't even want to consider any other option. This world was all very well, but it wasn't a place that would ever make him happy. It was virtually impossible to teach an old dog new tricks, and there were times, faced with the impossibility of settling into life without Shinra to tell him what to do, that Reno felt like a very old dog. Independence was something that evidently required a certain strength of will. And if he struggled to adapt to a world that viewed him with the hatred he could easily return, how would he deal with remaining trapped in this place. This world that was just beginning its slow spiral into decay.
Possibly not existing at all would be a better option than this, Reno realised. He shook his head, bringing his attention back into focus. This kind of adventure was forcing him to go through a lot more introspection than he had done in a very long time. He'd learned to ignore thoughts like these, both as a Turk and as an attendant at the supermarket. The former because thinking too much got you killed, and the latter because it was hardly a rewarding enough experience to do much more than build his feelings of resentment. This adventure, though, was another matter; he realised that much at least. He was slowly realising things that should have occurred to him years before. Better late than never, perhaps.
His ability to change his mood from the negative to the mildly optimistic had always surprised those who knew him. It had ceased to shock Reno himself a very long time ago, however. It was just part of what made him so great, his ability to pull himself out of his own bad moods. A few moments of existential uncertainty, followed by a little melancholia, before coming back to the idea that he was benefiting from this little excursion, and despite the complaints in his mind, he really was having a strange kind of fun with all this.
And just to put the violently pink frosting on the enormous chocolate cake that was Reno's adventure, it seemed he'd found Western View Street, which would contain one Dr. Heinz Gast. With a grin of very distinct satisfaction at his own sense of navigation and direction, Reno strolled down the road, noting the rather classy houses. They weren't quite of the standard he'd seen on the Plates of Midgar in his time, but they radiated a certain aura of wealth despite their smaller size and less complex construction. Most of these houses had cars parked on the street outside, and each had immaculate gardens. It occurred to Reno that talented scientists, in these times, had been widely respected, a far cry from their status in the future.
Recalling the address he'd seen at Gast's workshop, Reno quickly located the house the man lived in. He stood outside for a moment or two, considering his words carefully. He knew he had to do this right to be able to get exactly what he needed from this scientist.
Once he was satisfied that he had prepared his mind as best as he could, Reno approached the door and knocked twice, before stepping back and waiting. He could hear sounds from within, so it was certain there was someone home, and if he guessed correctly, as long as he was polite they wouldn't mind helping him.
He didn't have to wait long before a dark haired woman came to the door and opened it. There was no caution in her movements, and no sign of a weapon either on her person or leaning against the wall inside the house within easy reach; once again Reno was reminded of how trusting these people were.
"Hello. I'm sorry to trouble you on a Sunday, but if possible I'd like to speak with Dr. Gast," Reno said, giving the woman his warmest smile. This was, he guessed, Gast Sr.'s wife; these people were not the type to employ servants or maids.
"Of course. Please come in," the woman told him, returning his smile and evidently assuming that if he'd come on a Sunday to speak to her husband, then the matter must be pretty important. She stepped aside to allow him to enter, and then closed the door behind him, before leading him into the surprisingly spacious living room. There was a small boy, perhaps six years old, playing with some toys on the floor there, but he stopped to look up at Reno.
"Hey kid. What you playing with there?" Reno asked, smiling at the child. It always made for a good impression if he made an effort to get on with the kid while his mother located her husband. She'd probably return with a warm drink of some description, and it would be a far more trustworthy mug of coffee than the one he'd been given in Junon. Unless, of course, Gast Sr. was into human experimentation, but that kind of thing wouldn't start happening for another twenty five years, if Reno's guess was correct.
"It's a car. Daddy made it for me," the boy told him, and his grin suggested that he thought a toy car hand-carved by his father was the best toy he could ever have. It was a nice thing to see, Reno realised, and it had to be a more wholesome childhood than the one common to kids of his time. Those on the Plates had simply played with consoles all day, and those in the Slums had considered a dead cat a pretty good toy. While it was soft, it was a good thing to cuddle, and it it became stiff and hard, it made an effective weapon. And decomposing flesh was perfect for throwing at other kids.
"That's a pretty good car," Reno commented. "And you've got a boat there too. Now all you need is an airplane, and you have a full set."
"What's a airplane?" the boy asked, gazing up at the Turk with large brown eyes.
"Oh..." Reno responded, realising that air transportation probably hadn't yet been invented. Well, he'd have to tell Gast Sr. the truth anyway, and likely as not the whole family would stay to listen. "Well, they haven't been invented yet, but what it is is a kind of car with wings on, so it can fly. They go really fast, so you can fly all over the world in just a few hours."
"A fellow scientist, I take it?" a male voice enquired from behind him, and Reno turned to see a tall, dark man who could only be Dr. Heinz Gast, Sr. The man was smiling, apparently quite happy to meet one that really understood how things worked; well thought of scientists in this time may have been, but that didn't make them common.
"Not really, no," Reno responded, shaking his head, wondering just how he was going to explain all this. They might well consider him crazy. "I'm sorry to be intruding on you on a Sunday, but... I have a problem, and I'm pretty sure you're the only one that can help me. And even then, I'm not completely sure you're going to believe me."
"Why don't you sit down?" Heinz suggested, gesturing to the nearby armchair, while himself taking a seat on the couch. "My wife is just preparing some coffee."
Giving a nod, the red-head moved to sit down, finding the armchair pleasantly comfortable despite its somewhat lumpy appearance and decorative floral design. "I'm not sure where to start," he said after a moment. In this particular situation, he decided that sounding somewhat uncertain and nervous was the best course of action; it would make Gast want to help him.
"How about the beginning, Mr.?" the scientist asked, politely requesting a name to match the face of his guest. Reno couldn't help but notice that the man was also taking surreptitious looks at his glowing Mako eyes; since coming to this world, he'd been getting used to those looks, but it was something else entirely to be getting them from someone who might actually understand the reason for the glow, once he'd been told the cause.
"My name's Turk," Reno responded, already knowing better than to give his real name. "The beginning... well, if I may be blunt... I'm from the future. About fifty years, as far as I can gather. And I really don't know how to get home."
"Time travel!" Gast exclaimed, his face breaking into an open smile. "But how?"
"I'm not really sure. I was hoping you might have some ideas," Reno replied, shaking his head in the manner that suggested he felt all was hopeless.
"Describe what happened to you, and maybe I can help," Heinz suggested after a moment, evidently moved by pity for his guest's plight. Exactly the effect Reno had been looking for.
Reno frowned, looking thoughtful for a few moments. Quite genuinely, he was trying to consider the best way of explaining the whole thing to the scientist in front of him. He was saved, at least for a brief period of time, by the arrival of Gast's wife with the coffee, which he accepted with a grateful smile and a nod of thanks.
"Okay... It was late in the evening, and there was a storm in the distance. It was one of those nights where you really don't want to be outside, if you know what I mean? I was at work--" he started, but was quickly cut off.
"Working at night?" Gast asked, apparently shocked by this.
"Yeah. The future's not a very nice place. It was the only job I could get," Reno responded, before realising something. "Perhaps I should start this story a little earlier. There's some other things you need to know. I remember Hojo always used to say that when you're analysing anything, you need all the information, and there's a lot of things that I take for granted that you won't know about yet..."
"Is it wise to tell me about them, then? You may be changing the future," Gast pointed out.
"I already thought of that. But most of the stuff I'm about to tell you is science that you started anyway. It's about Mako," Reno said. He was relaxing a little, finding that he'd already sparked the scientist's interest, and so simple plain honesty would serve him best now. He looked into his coffee for a moment, before taking a sip.
"So Mako does have special qualities?" Heinz asked, giving his red haired guest a very intense, attentive look.
"Yes, it does. When used in a reactor, it releases vast quantities of energy, far more than any of the combustible fuels you use here. The whole world is powered by the electricity produced from Mako. But it does other things. When you infuse Mako into living things, they become stronger, faster, smarter. Like me. You see my eyes? That's one of the side-effects. It's dangerous to infuse with just anyone, because Mako can poison you if you're exposed to too much. You've probably discovered yourself that you feel ill when you've been shut in a workshop with it all day," Reno explained, being careful to leave out details about the Lifestream and how Mako was the life force of the Planet; someone like Gast Sr. would never experiment with Mako if he thought it would harm the Planet.
"Yes, I had noticed that. So you say you've been infused with Mako? Incredible!" Heinz said, leaning forward to look more closely into Reno's eyes. "May I take some measurements of your capabilities later? This is fascinating!"
"Of course," the Turk responded, always happy to accept any opportunity to show off his Mako enhanced abilities. "Without the Mako in my system, I'd've never managed to get this far. You do have some very dangerous dragons here, far more so than the ones at home..."
"You fought a dragon? And you survived?" Gast was evidently easily excited when it came to things like this, Reno realised.
"Only just, but yes. It was this that actually saved my life, though," Reno said, pulling his Destruct materia from his pocket and handing it to the scientist. "This is materia, a super condensed form of Mako, and specifically, this one is Destruct. Materia lets you harness the powers in your own mind to perform magic, and the type of materia determines what kind of magic. Destruct lets me use three spells, either offensively or defensively. Two of them let me break magical barriers, and the third is a death spell. I was using it defensively while I was fighting the dragon, so the death spell protected me from the dragon's own magic."
"The dragon was doing magic. It had it's own materia, then?" Heinz asked. His wife and son were also listening to the conversation, and although they found it interesting, they also didn't really understand it.
"No. Everything with a mind on the Planet has the ability to use magic, and this comes naturally to animals and monsters. With humans, though, we mostly need materia, although there's also limit magic, which is the powers released when you're angry or afraid. I don't think that will start showing in humans for a long time, though. Not until Mako is more widely used. And a very few have their own magic they can use at will. Another result of Mako infusion, maybe. I'll show you mine later, if you want," the Turk offered, knowing that Pyramid and Neo-Turk Light very rarely failed to impress.
"Yes, I'd like that. So, how does all this tie in with your time traveling?" Gast Sr. asked, returning to the point at hand. Reno didn't doubt that he'd be asked for more information later on, once the scientist had the basic outline of everything in his mind.
"I was in a fight with a couple of guys with more advanced Mako infusion than me. My enhancements are primarily to keep me alive and give me an edge, but these men were part of the Soldier program. Very strong, and very fast. I was only winning because I've been trained to survive. But they started bringing materia into it. It looked like a combination of a Slow spell and Remove. Just where that particular one removes people to has always confused me. I'm guessing that back in time is better than the alternatives, though. Somewhere in the midst of that magic, I got hit on the head with a can of beans, and I woke up in the village of Junon."
"Well, that's quite a tale, young man," the scientist said, looking thoughtful, yet impressed. "I take it you're a military man, then?" he added with a hint of suspicion; it seemed that the people of this world did not trust those who fought for a living.
"Not at all. I'm a bodyguard, mostly, working for the leaders of Midgar. Or I was. We've had some very difficult times in the future. There were a lot of terrorists causing trouble, and many people have suffered because of it. They set off bombs in a couple of the Mako Reactors, and despite my best efforts to stop them, they managed to destroy an entire section of Midgar, killing over a million people..." Reno said, deliberately trailing off at this point.
He referred, of course, to Sector Seven, as told be Shinra to the world. Avalanche had attacked it, and had succeeded in destroying it despite the presence of Reno Fletcher of the Turks, who was unfortunately badly injured by the terrorists. He'd been called a hero amongst the Shinra employees and people of the Plates who knew no better. This lie, combined with the tone of voice that indicated his failure to protect Midgar was a very sore point for him would, he hoped, be enough to convince Gast that helping him was the thing to do.
"The government was decimated not long after, and a direct hit by a meteor from space has taken its toll. With the government gone, the world is in turmoil, and most people believe that the terrorists were right. Anyone who's been obviously infused with Mako is associated with the ones the terrorists were fighting against. Some, like the men I was fighting with before I came here, turned to crime to survive."
"It sounds terrible," Gast told him, sounding truly sympathetic. "And, I will help you return. If you get back to your time, then you will be able to fix things, won't you?"
Now there was an idea! One that Reno hadn't even thought of, too. But since it fitted in nicely with the lives, he nodded to the scientist. "Yes. That is what I was working on with my former colleagues. There's a good man that would help to rebuild things, and my former colleagues and I are going to help him." That part was, of course, a pure lie. But sometimes it was necessary to break away from the half-truths into complete fantasy, just to make sure things went as he planned.
"I have a few ideas, but I'll need your help with them. You may not be a scientist, but you do understand Mako far more than I do. The most obvious answer that comes to mind is using a Remove spell again, and perhaps the opposite of Slow, if that exists?" Heinz suggested.
"It does. The Haste spell. Unfortunately, Time and Exit are two materia that I don't own," Reno replied. That was, of course, why the idea had not occurred to him at any point during his adventure at all. He knew that without the correct materia, it was not possible. And it had been obvious from the start that materia did not exist in this time. But now he had a willing scientist to help him find a solution, and that was a step closer to home than he had been previously.
Disclaimer - Final Fantasy VII, or concepts, characters and ideas thereof, do not belong to me. It's possible that Gast Sr. does, though, although I'm not completely sure. He is family of someone that doesn't belong to me. Complex, huh?
Author's Notes - Well, I know it's been a very long time since I wrote anything for this. And this was a truly odd chapter to write. It was incredibly difficult in places, but some parts, especially the later parts, were a lot of fun. But on the plus side, I'm fairly certain where the rest of this story is going now. Doesn't mean it's anywhere near being finished, mind.
And... you know, I've had so many reviews for the last chapter, I'm really not sure I should respond to them all here. Just call this a general thank you to everyone who reviewed; you make my day, when those little Review Alert emails arrive in my inbox. Keep 'em coming, yes yes?
Now on to chapter 17, which I shall try to get done quickly. How long has it been since the last chapter I put up?