Thanks to everyone who reviewd and anyone who read the last two chapters. It makes me all happy.
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Fantasy
Chapter Three: Felis and Shinra HQ
The elevator opened and the two guards pushed their captive inside with the barrels of their guns stuck in her back. "I can walk on my own, thanks!" Felis Haww said, correcting her stance so she stood up straight.
Since her hands were bound behind her back, she had to shake her head and blow out of the corner of her mouth to get her long hair out of her face. As the elevator went up, she again went over what had happened since she had woken up.
Felis had opened her eyes to find herself in a very bland room with metal walls and a tiled floor—also some sort of metal—with what looked like bookshelves on either side. Standing up and taking a closer look, she found that the shelves actually held computers. Incredibly confused and concerned about where she was and how she came to be there, Felis had made the foolish mistake of stepping outside and asking someone where she was.
For some reason, that person had then pulled an alarm and called security on her. After a long, lung-bursting run, Felis tripped and scraped her hands on the floor, allowing the guards enough time to take her backpack and put her in handcuffs.
This brought her back to the present; where she stood in the elevator and it took her and the two guards up to a higher floor. Felis realized belatedly that the elevator was glass and she looked out the window to find herself gaping down at a vast city of metal and lights all around. As she watched, a technical grey helicopter passed the side of the building.
Amazed, but even more confused, Felis turned to one of the guards. "Ne, where are we?"
"Don't play innocent with me!" the man barked in reply. Which, obviously, wasn't much of a reply at all.
Felis narrowed her dark brown eyes into a steely glare that made the guard shift his weight uneasily. "If I was playing innocent, sir, I would not sound so mature," she said flatly, knowing her own acts of innocence. "I just want to know where we are. Is that so hard to tell me, or are you too dense to understand when someone is lost?"
"It would take an incredibly stupid person not to know when they were here," he shot back hotly.
"Okay. I'm incredibly stupid," Felis replied. "Now tell me where I am."
Before the first guard and Felis could get into another snapping contest, the second guard intervened. "This is Shinra Headquarters, in Midgar," he said quickly, making his friend step down.
Felis' eyes widened. "Midgar…?" Her eyes shot back outside and she did indeed recognize her surroundings of being from the game she and her older sister were so fond of.
Amazing! She thought. Bad place to be, but still amazing!
The young woman wondered for a time whether or not she was dreaming, but found she couldn't possibly be asleep. After all, she had hurt herself earlier when they had chased her, and even she couldn't come up with something this incredible. Unlike Filia who had them constantly, Felis never had video game dreams, so this couldn't be a dream.
The elevator let out a too-chipper ding and the doors opened. The guards grabbed Felis away from the window and directed her down the hall.
"So…am I gonna be interrogated or something now?" She asked the second guard, as he seemed to be more polite than the other one.
He nodded. "You seem smart enough, so I'll tell you now, Mister Tseng is no pushover."
"Yeah!" The other guard said. "So don't try anything stupid!"
Felis jerked and looked over her shoulders, from one guard to the other. "Mister…Tseng?" She gaped. Could it… No! No, it couldn't be him! But…this is Midgar. Supposedly. Maybe… Oh! I hope not!
They came to a room at the end of the hall; when the doors opened, the ruder guard pushed Felis into it. She stumbled, but luckily caught herself, sending a glare back at the guards before looking at the room she had been forced into.
The room had beautiful red carpet, thick and lush as velvet, with two couches of the same color and a glass-topped coffee table between them. A metal desk sat at the end of the room, placed just in front of a large window that gazed out at the earthbound stars of Midgar. Standing beside the desk was a tall man with straight black hair the reached past his shoulders; he wore a black-blue suit, a matching tie and a white button-up shirt.
This man was Tseng, leader of the Turks.
"How many was it?" He asked into the communicator on the desk as he wrote something down on a small notepad.
"There were three, if you were to include the Ancient girl," the person on the other end replied. "But see what you can dig up on this blonde guy, would ya? He had a SOLDIER belt and glowing eyes, so there should be a chance he's in the records."
"Will do," Tseng said as he finished writing in the pad. "Be sure to report to the infirmary when you get back," he smirked. "Wouldn't want that bite getting infected."
The voice on the line groaned. "Will do," he echoed reluctantly. "Over and out."
Tseng turned the communicator off and looked to the two guards, then to the young girl they had brought in. Blinking, he returned his eyes to the guards. "This is the intruder?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, sir," the guards replied. Filia noticed that they suddenly didn't seem so ready to brag.
The Turk set his notepad down on the desk and walked over to the girl, carefully taking in her appearance. She wasn't very tall, but she also wasn't dirty, which didn't make sense if she came from below the plate. Her pants were light blue and she wore a grey sweater that went down to her knees, covered by a dark green coat—the sleeves of which were obviously too big, as she had to fold them up in order just for her hands to barely peek out of them. The girl's dark hair was also clean, although several strands of it were coming loose from her ponytail. The only thing Tseng found the slightest bit dirty about the girl was the little bit of mud on the toes of her dark brown boots.
The Turk leader tried to find some reason behind this but couldn't. Tseng stopped when he found the girl shrinking away from him, her dark brown eyes wide. "What is it?" He asked.
Felis blinked as she snapped back to reality—or pseudo-reality at this point—and chuckled weakly. "You're…tall," she murmured as she cast her eyes down to the floor. He was Wutaian, that much was obvious from the game, so Felis had always assumed he was fairly short, like a Japanese or Chinese person. She reminded herself silently that he wasn't from Japan or China, but Wutai. Wutai, while it held similarities in culture to both these Terran places, was neither. And obviously Yuffie's shortness was a fluke.
Tseng raised a fine black eyebrow and turned his equally dark eyes from the girl to the guards, who simply shrugged in obvious bewilderment. Sighing in exasperation at the idiots Shinra was hiring these days, he looked back at the girl. "Your name?"
She glanced back up, but quickly cast her eyes to her feet once more. It was almost like she was…shy. Not afraid, but shy. That made no sense. "Felis," she replied. "Felis Haww."
"Alright, Felis," he nodded and walked back to one of the couches. "Have a seat."
Felis responded with a nod of her own and followed the Turk leader. He paused for a moment when they reached the couch, and turned around to face her once more. "Hold still," he commanded, leaning close. He pressed his index finger to the space between the cuffs behind her back, leaning over her so closely that his hair brushed her face. Felis was surprised when she felt the cuffs loosen, then clatter to the floor. Of course, if she did something crazy and attacked him—because it would be crazy to attack any Turk, much less the leader—he could take care of himself, so she supposed the cuffs were unnecessary. She wondered what that said about the idiot guards.
He sat on the couch on the right, so she took the one on the left, sitting straight across from him as he sat down and crossed his legs.
Tseng watched her rub her mildly abraded wrists and made a mental note to get the auto-adjustment sensors in her cuffs checked. They were supposed to hold a prisoner's hands in place, not cut off the circulation. "So, Miss… How do you spell you last name?"
"H-A-W-W. Haww," Felis replied, spelling it out and pronouncing it.
"Of course," the ebony-haired man nodded, brushing some loose hair behind his ear. "Perhaps you could explain to me how you managed to slip past our security and make it into one of our libraries?"
Felis snapped to attention for an instant, eyes wide, but then cast her eyes down to the reflections on the glass surface of the table. "I…don't know," she said quietly.
Tseng paused for a moment, but the girl said nothing more. She almost seemed to be moping. What kind of prisoner was shy around a Turk and moped during interrogation? He couldn't help but wonder. "All right," he said at last. "What were you doing in there?"
"I don't know," Felis repeated.
Tseng sighed. "Miss Haww, are you a member of the terrorist group that has been attacking the Mako Reactors as of late?"
At this, Felis looked up and met his eyes. "Avalanche?" she queried, raising both eyebrows. She let out a short chuckle and shook her head hurriedly, a smile brightening her features and making it appear like she thought the idea was absurd. "No, no way."
The Turk raised an eyebrow. "And yet, you know the name of this terrorist group?"
Felis went rigid when he pointed that out. She couldn't possibly tell him the truth about how she knew it, he would most definitely think she was crazy. So, she improvised. "Well, uh…the name is spraypainted all over the place down below," she said, pointing downward. "It's pretty hard not to know it really."
"Then, you are from below the plate?"
"Well," Felis chuckled nervously. "Kinda…sorta? But not…really, no."
Tseng folded his arms across his chest with a sigh. "Miss Haww, I need you to be completely truthful and very clear when answering these questions."
"Can I ask…you something?" Felis inquired slowly.
Tseng looked directly at her, but this time she didn't look away. "Alright…"
"What's happened so far?"
He raised an eyebrow. "I…don't understand what you're asking," he said. "Be more specific."
"How long has it been since Reactor number 8 was blown?" She elaborated, hoping she wasn't giving anything away. If they found out that Avalanche was going to destroy the Reactor before they did it, they might very well kill them all before Sephiroth could even come into play.
The Turk leader blinked. "It blew just yesterday," he replied. Felis stifled a sigh of relief. "And Reactor 5 blew earlier today. Why?"
Felis looked down as she pondered on his answer. So…I'm still near the beginning of the game, she thought. But how…?
Just then, catching the girl's attention, the doors opened and in stormed a darkly handsome man. He was probably in his late forties or early fifties, though he held his age well, and was clad in button up shirt, black slacks, and a lab coat. His shiny black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and a pair of round-framed glasses covered his black eyes. "Tseng!" he barked upon entering.
Tseng slumped, and Felis was barely able to catch him whisper, "Oh god, not this again…!"
The man stormed over to the couch the Turk leader sat on and slammed his hands down on the crimson armrest. "Tseng, I am to understand that you were incapable of capturing the Ancient? Again?" He demanded. "You do realize that my research is moot unless I have a specimen, don't you? I'm certain a man of your mentality is able to comprehend even that very simple, undeniable fact, aren't you, Tseng?"
"My dear, dear Doctor Hojo," Tseng rubbed between his eyes as he struggled to keep his voice down and his tone level. "We all understand the importance of your research. However, we can't very well do anything about the Ancient if you continue to storm in and complain at times like this. I have a job to do—"
"Yes, to bring me the Ancient!"
Tseng ground his teeth. "—and you continue to interrupt it."
As the two men continued to bicker—in a manner so civilized it seemed almost unreal—about the unattained Ancient, Felis sat frozen in her seat as she stared in shock at the man in the lab coat. He waved his hands about, gesturing wildly and spouting some nonsense about his life's work, but Felis couldn't understand a word.
Hojo, she thought blankly.
This was the man who sent Sephiroth to Nibelheim for his descent into madness; he who changed Vincent's body so that he would forever consider himself a monster; he who allowed his own wife to die so that he research would be furthered. He who now stood but a few feet from her.
Felis had always hated Hojo for what he had done, there was no denying that. But he had always been a character in some game, nothing more than a mass of pixels and sketchy super-deformation. No, to Felis he always been a person, a person she hated—but a person who would always be hated from the other side of the glass on a TV screen. Somehow, seeing him in the flesh made that hatred and anger towards him grow to immense proportions.
The young woman felt her heart pound against her ribcage and she dug her nails into knees, gritting her teeth. "Hojo…!" The doctor and the Turk turned their attention from each other to the young girl, who by now was shaking terribly.
"And you are…?" Hojo inquired, raising one eyebrow and straightening his silver-rimmed glasses.
Felis didn't even think about answering him. "You can stand there, complaining about your lack of an Ancient until your hair falls out," Felis said. "If I could have things my way, you never would have existed. For Seph's, Vincent's and everyone else's sakes, I would gladly see you dead." The young woman looked up, her eyes full of hate and anger. "But there was nothing I could ever do about that. I could never take back what you did to all of them, no matter how hard I tried or wished for it."
Hojo stared at Felis in confusion, but he also understood some of what she was saying. "Who are you?" He asked.
"Things are different, now, though," she continued. "Now you're right here, right in front of me…" She narrowed her eyes. "And I'm not going to sit here and pretend I don't care!" She leapt up, lunging for the doctor, and Tseng intercepted a moment too late. Looking back later, the Turk would wonder if his failed attempt had been intentional—he had long wanted to watch someone, anyone, pummel the lunatic into oblivion.
Felis slammed into the scientist, forcing him to the ground, and wrapped both arms around his throat. A part of her screamed that she couldn't kill him—she couldn't kill anyone, she didn't have the right—but that part was shoved back into the farthest corner of her mind as she waited for the black-haired man's skin to turn blue.
She didn't get the chance to see, for Tseng took hold of one of her arms and expertly pulled it free of the doctor's neck, twisting it behind her back so far she knew it would break any moment and hoisting her to her feet. "As interesting as that was," he breathed into her ear, "I'm afraid I can't stand idly by and let you kill the head of Shinra's scientific research division."
Tseng motioned for the guards to take her down to the brig and they complied, first retrieving the semi-defective cuffs and placing them on her wrists once more before leading her towards the door. As she stood up and headed out of the room, Felis glared long and hard at Hojo, as if trying to make him fall dead right where he stood.
The guards and Felis left the room and Tseng turned to face Hojo, who was stumbling to his feet, one pale hand against his neck, breath heaving. "I will let you know the moment the Ancient is in our possession, Doctor," he said, not bothering to help the other man stand. "But until that time—"
"Tseng, who was that girl?" Hojo inquired, pointing after Felis with his free hand after he had risen up off the ground.
The Turk leader hesitated. "Just an intruder on the compound," he replied slowly as he stepped away and pretended to be busy with a small file on the desk. Hojo stood deep in thought for a long moment, silent at last. "No one of consequence…" the Turk assured him.
Hojo stared at the closed doors for a long while, then a cold smile crossed his lips. "And since she is 'no one of consequence,' you won't have need of her, correct?"
Tseng knew what was coming, but nonetheless tried to ignore the horrors he knew awaited that young girl. "No…" he replied, leaning his hands down on the desk. "No, I won't."
"Good!" The doctor clapped. "Perhaps I won't be without something to keep me occupied after all. Thank you, Tseng." And, with a small nod, Hojo left the room.
The Turk leader straightened after a moment and glared after Hojo, cursing him for what he had done in the past, and what he was about to do. He muttered several curses in the very capable Wutaian tongue, but was cut off when the communicator on the desk hummed.
Tseng broke off and pushed the blinking button. "Tseng here."
"Mister Tseng," a woman said. "I was just calling to inform you that Master Rufus' helicopter will be landing shortly."
"Of course, thank you." The Turk turned the machine off and headed towards the door, stopping when he noticed a black backpack sitting on the floor by the exit. He started to reach for it, but decided against it just before his fingers brushed the thick black fabric. He left it by the door and left the room to welcome Rufus Shinra back to Midgar.
- - -
Felis sat in the corner of her cell, hugging her knees to her chest. She was very scared, and wanted nothing more than for someone to hold her and tell her everything was okay, but she knew that would not happen. She was alone in this strange, far away place called Midgar. No mother, no sister and no little brother.
Finally accepting this to be true, Felis knew that she had to escape somehow. If she waited long enough, she might run into Cloud and the others, and they might be able to help her, but she remembered a whole lot of stuff had to happen before they were captured while rescuing Aerith. Which meant she would have to break out on her own.
Felis sighed, knowing full well that she had no chance of doing that.
Just then, she heard the guard outside talking to someone and Felis stood up when she heard him typing in the code to open her cell door. When it opened, she was horrified and enraged to find Doctor Hojo standing in the entranceway, smiling.
Hojo stepped in and Felis backed away.
This made his smile broaden. "And you were so full of righteous fury before, too bad." He stepped closer until Felis felt her legs hit the bed and she froze. "I wonder what it is about you…" he muttered, reaching up and tilting her head back to look at her face. "You just spark a certain…interest."
Felis snapped her head away and slapped his hand.
"Ah! There it is!" He grinned and reached into the pocket of his coat. "As much as I admire that fire in your eyes, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to douse it before I can do anything." Hojo withdrew a small medicine bottle from his lab coat and opened it, dropping two round, white pills into his other hand.
Felis tried to pull back further as he returned the bottle to his pocket and turned back to her. "Keep away from me!"
Hojo grabbed the young woman by her throat, his grip much stronger than she would have thought such a spindly man was capable of, and held her as he stuck one of the pills down her throat. Felis pulled away with a gasp and felt the pill fall down her throat uncomfortably as she held her neck, coughing.
"It's just a small sedative," he said, kneeling down beside her. "Now unless you want me to grab your hair and shove this one down your throat too, I suggest you take it calmly."
Felis hacked and looked back up at the doctor. "Sicko…!" she spat. Hojo sighed, shaking his head. He easily shoved the second pill into her mouth and Felis covered her mouth as she leaned over.
"I'll send some guards to escort you in an hour; by then, you'll be mostly incapacitated." With that, Hojo left.
Felis waited until she heard the door close and the spat the pill out on the floor before sitting up. She quickly pulled her sleeve over her hand and stuck two fingers in her mouth to try and get rid of the taste of Hojo's fingers in her mouth. She considered trying to gag herself to get out the other pill, but wasn't sure if she could.
After taking on the flavor of green flannel, Felis sat back against the wall and struggled to breathe. She had been through enough things in her life, but having a guy stick his fingers in her mouth to make her swallow something had to be filed under 'UNDENIABLY NASTY.'
Even so, she had already swallowed one sedative, so there was no doubt she would eventually pass out. But Hojo had tried to give her two, so maybe, just maybe the one pill alone wouldn't knock her out too badly.
But the thought of passing out at all and waking up like a frog in a biology lab made Felis shudder. She pulled her legs against her chest and leaned her head against her knees as she tried to cry.
"What am I gonna do…?!"
- - -
Tseng waited on the roof as the helicopter landed. As the propeller slowly died down, the side door opened and out stepped a young man around twenty-three years old. He was tall and had fiery-blond hair and deep blue eyes; he wore a black turtleneck covered by a white trenchcoat covered by a white, grey-lined business coat and matching pants.
Rufus Shinra had arrived in Midgar.
Tseng bent over as he walked over to greet the future-president of Shinra Inc. "Welcome home, Mister Rufus!" He shouted to be heard over the helicopter.
"Hey, Tseng!" Rufus grinned as he shielded his face from the force of the propeller. "Things still boring here?"
Tseng grabbed Rufus' bags and they walked away from the noisy contraption. "Far from it actually," he replied as he opened the glass door, allowing Rufus to step inside before he followed. "A group of terrorist rebels have been attacking the Mako Reactors for the past few days, numbers 8 and 5 are out along with 1."
Rufus sighed as they walked down the hall and stepped into the elevator. "Home sweet home, huh?"
The elevator took them down a few floors and when the doors opened again, they made their way down the hall to Rufus' office. Tseng set the young Shinra's luggage on the other side of the door, opposite of Felis' forgotten bag and watched as his charge collapsed on one of the red couches, turning his face up to the ceiling.
Rufus rubbed his face and groaned. "Gaea! I'm exhausted!"
"Tough trip?" Tseng asked, sitting on the opposite couch.
"Highwind is still demanding that Shinra 'restart the Space Project and do something with that damn rocket before it rots to useless scraps of metal,' " Rufus said. "I wanna shoot that guy in the head a few times, maybe then my headache will go away."
"I personally thought that rocket was always a useless scrap of metal," Tseng said, making Rufus chuckle.
The young Shinra started to sit up, but his head pounded again and he fell back down. Holding his head he turned to Tseng with a reassuring look. "So, other than the attacks, anything interesting happen while I was away?"
Tseng thought a moment. "Actually—"
The Turk leader was cut off suddenly when the doors opened and Reno literally fell into the room. "Keep away from me, you sadist!"
Reno scrambled to his feet, then to the other end of the room as a woman with short, sunshine-blonde hair and dark brown eyes stepped in followed by a tall, burly, bald man with sunglasses; they both wore the same suit as Reno and Tseng.
"Oh, don't be such an ass, Reno!" Elena said. She froze at the sight of Rufus on the couch and straightened. "M-M-Master Rufus! I-I-I-I'm sorry, sir! I didn't mean to—"
"It's all right, Elena," Tseng smiled.
"Your newest Turk, Tseng?" Rufus asked.
"Turk-in-training, actually," replied Tseng. "I've been having her work with Reno and Rude for the time being. Learning the ropes."
Reno then noticed the future president and walked over to the couch with a grin. "Hey, Rufus! How's it goin'?"
Rufus groaned and draped his arm over his eyes. "Not so loud! My head is killing me…!"
"Sorry," Reno whispered and leaned his arms on the head of the couch. "Let me guess, you're latest trip was to Rocket Town?"
"Correct. Fifty points to Reno," Rufus said sarcastically, removing his arm from his eyes and smiling. Anything he was about to say died before it could be said when he caught sight of Reno's bandaged left hand. "What the hell happened to you?"
The scarlet-haired Turk started and put his hand into his pocket with a fake cough. "I was, uh…bitten by a stray dog," he replied.
Elena scoffed and rolled her eyes, but did not say anything.
Rufus, not in the mood to fight the truth out of his friend, looked back at Tseng. "What really happened?"
"Someone bit him down below the plate," the leader replied, receiving an obscene gesture from Reno. "It was while he was after the Ancient."
"Below the plate?" Rufus looked back at the redhead. "It's about the same as a stray dog, then. Did you get tested for rabies?"
"Oh, ha, ha," Reno retorted. "Very funny, Rufus. But, man! That chick was funky!"
Rufus sat up with a slight interest. "A woman bit you?"
"I think it was a woman…" Reno looked up to meet slightly nauseated looks from his employer and comrades. "Not like that!" He shouted.
"Then elaborate, please," Tseng said, folding his arms and leaning back with a smirk. "I never got to hear the whole story."
Reno honestly wasn't in the mood, but complied to the order given by his superior. "Well, there was this chick with the Ancient," he said. "But she didn't really look like a chick. I mean, she was built like…like…me." He had considered saying 'Elena,' but decided he liked his face where it was. "She was pretty flat, but when I grabbed her, I felt…uh…"
Elena raised an eyebrow. "You grabbed her, did you? Where, if you don't mind my asking?"
The scarlet-haired Turk chuckled nervously. "Well…I, myself, don't usually mind talking about that part of the female body, but…you might hold some offense to it…"
"So you groped this girl, thinking she was a guy?" Rufus asked. "That's just twisted, Reno."
"I didn't mean to grope her!"
"But you still groped her," Rude said.
"Would you guys stop saying 'grope'?!" Elena exclaimed. "It's making me uncomfortable—me being the only woman in this room!" Everyone else chuckled and the woman fell silent, looking down at the red carpet, undeniably flustered.
It was then that Reno looked at the bags by the door and caught sight of one black bag sitting by itself on the left side of the exit. "Hey, Rufus, that bag yours?"
"What bag?"
Reno walked over to the door and picked up the backpack, slightly surprised at how heavy it was. It looked small, but Reno was sure it weighed a ton. Maybe two. "Damn, man! I thought you liked to travel light!"
Rufus looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "That's not my bag."
"Oh!" Tseng started.
"It's yours?!" Reno marveled as he set the bag down on the couch, where it made a significant dent in the red upholstery. "I didn't know you traveled at all! Much less with something so heavy."
"Oh, well, it's not mine exactly, it's…"
Everyone looked at the Turk leader, expectantly.
"Company, Tseng?" Reno grinned. "Didn't know you had that, either. Who is she? A body builder?"
"It's…it belongs to an intruder security caught earlier today," he explained.
"Someone got on the compound?!" Elena gaped, as did almost everyone else. "How did they get past the main security?"
"She says she doesn't know," Tseng shrugged.
"Ah-ha… So it does belong to a girl." Reno's grin fell away as he blinked and looked at the bag. "She actually carries this thing?!"
Tseng shrugged again. "The guards brought it in with her and forgot about it, I guess."
Elena attempted to bring to light the gravity of this situation. "But someone on the compound—"
"Listen." Everyone turned their attention to Rufus. "I really do find this all very interesting: girls that look like men, girls that lift weights, but I am really, very tired. And I would appreciate it if you could discuss these things elsewhere."
The Turks all jumped up and exited the room hurriedly, only Elena pausing to bow in the doorway, leaving Rufus Shinra to try to sleep.
Rufus fell back down on his back, his head just barely missing a fatal collision with the intruder's bag. He looked up at it, but decided to dwell on its hidden weight later, after some rest.