(For Disclaimer, refer to chapter 1)

Chapter 15: Bad Business Man

"So when do you figure they're brining chow?' Cid groggily asked as he raised from the hard wooden bunk he slept on. There was no immediate answer. Cid rubbed his eyes and looked around the small cell.

"Cait Sith that damned Shinra spy got us locked up here and all yer worryin' abouts you Fucking stomach. You ever thought that meybe just meybe he's lurrin' the others into some kinda trap," Barret was sitting on the floor. After hours of pounding against the door and cussing the previous night, he had finally given up. Now he only screamed his curses and threats when he could see the Shinra workers pass by the cell. Or when his cell mates gave him reason too.

Vincent was standing with his back towards them and looking out into the darkened hallways. His unmoving mechanical arm hung limp giving him a crooked stance. "Consider us lucky if they decide to feed us at all." Vincent said without looking back.

"Yeah. That's pretty much what I thought too." Cid reached to the pack of cigarettes he always kept tucked into his goggles only to be reminded that they had also been confiscated.

"What's on today's schedule?" Reeve asked his secretary as he walked to his office for the first time that day.

"At eight o'clock you have the meeting with mayor Domino and Hart. Ten thirty is the rehearsal for the radio interview tomorrow. You have a lunch meeting with the head of the Industry for Environmental Devices…after that you're dancing naked on the top of Burger Time and then you're buying me a new car," she finished.

"Hmmm?" Reeve murmured.

"I was testing you. You really aren't paying any attention, are you?" she said with a smile.

"Sorry, Em. I have other things on my mind today." Reeve said.

"Seems pretty important to you. You might want to consider shaking them before your meetings. I can't remember the last time I saw you this down."

"Sure you do. When I misspelled the name on the birthday cake I brought you." Reeve never bothered to turn to face her but continued to stare out the window.

"You still remember that? How many times have I told you to let that go? It's not like anybody else even bothered to get me anything that year. But we're not sidetracking into my social life right now."

There was a pause. Reeve had nothing further to add to the conversation. "Do I have anything planned with the other Department heads today?" he finally asked getting back to business. His secretary paused as she called up the full schedule on her computer screen.

"Nothing, sir."

"In that case, we need to make something. Emily, cancel all appointment today. Move them to tomorrow, if possible. I have something I need to take care of. Get a hold of Professor Hojo for me, would you?" Reeve's voice was pure business. He then walked to his office and closed the door behind him.

"I can't hear them," Vincent shattered the silence of the cell.

"What the holy hell are you talking about this time?" Cid cursed. Vincent didn't answer. He smashed his fleshy fist against the wall. Neither Barret nor Cid thought much of this. Especially since Barret already took his turn banging against the walls. Then the former Turk smashed his head against the cold steel walls of the cell.

"The fuck?" Barret exclaimed in confusion.

"Damned bastard's gone whacked on us," Cid tossed back as an explanation.

Barret leapt up and grabbed Vincent to prevent him from hurting himself more. "What's yer problem?" Barret yelled at him.

"I can't hear them. I can't feel them," Vincent said. Blood was pouring down the gashes he had made in his forehead. The color of his blood matched his headband almost perfectly. Cid joined Barret in helping Vincent to one of the bunks. When he had been set back and leaned against the wall, Cid ran to the door and began yelling for medical help.

"Shaddup! Ain't nobody gonna come here and help!" Barret yelled to him. "damned foo' just gone ape Shit on us and smashed his own face up!"

"No. I….have ….a plan," Vincent muttered as he faded into unconsciousness.

Hojo was bent over a microscope wearing both protective gloves, goggles, and a small breathing apparatus. He had concocted several experiments with Jenova cells before and on extreme rare occasions, certain mixtures would release highly irritant gasses. He found that in his present poor health, it was always better to take precautions rather than risk additional illness.

He took a small beaker and extracted some of the blood inside with an eye dropper. Then he placed a small glass slide on the microscope near him and took a translucent blue liquid from another beaker.

"Recording begin," he prompted the voice activation software on his cameras and vocal recorders. Hojo glanced at some note he had made for himself. "Procedure 97423." He told the machines recording his words. "Time Zero eight three two hours….," he administered two drops of blood on the tray. "And now, it's show time," he grinned as he placed added the clear fluid to the substance and quickly rushed his eyes to the microscope.

From his viewing point, he could see a struggle at the cellular level of his two subjects. Gradually, the DNA from the clear liquids began to cause a violent reaction resulting in the blood becoming little more than a twisted mutant reflection of the blue liquid.

"Fascinating," Hojo said with wonder. "It seems that the despite both of their genetic compatibilities with humans, when combined together, the Jenova cells first deform then kill the DNA structure of the Ancients. Assuming of course that the 19 difference between the test subject and a pure Cetra doesn't…,"

The phone rang interrupting the scientist's thoughts. This better be good, Hojo said quite cross. Hojo shut off the recordings. "What do you want?" he said transferring his phone line to speaker settings.

"Sorry to disturb you Mister Hojo," the a female voice on the other end of the line said.

"Professor Hojo," he corrected her quite firmly.

"Oh I'm so terribly sorry, Professor. This is …"

"Get to the point, woman." Hojo reprimanded her. He could hear the nervous stammer in her voice. He tended to get that a lot. People seemed to tip toe around him. People seemed to think that he spent his time imaging what he could do to them in his lab. Which was the truth.

"Mr. Reeve wants to set up an appointment with you, professor. Preferable today if at all possible." Hojo scowled at the woman's words.

"Yes yes. Tell him to meet me at the ... No never mind. I'll be up that way," Hojo told her before cutting the transmission.

From her end of the line, Reeve's secretary gulped. Those that were lucky enough to work in the main offices of the Shinra were very careful not to draw any of the attentions of most of the higher staff for fear of retribution for whatever imagined slights they might be accused of. Hojo was the worst of the lot. He overflowed with insecurities and mental issues. It always seemed that he looked at people with no more regard than a man picking up a slab of meat from the butchers. She have to try to be gone before he showed up. Surely Reeve would understand.

….

"'kay. I'm stuck in a jail with two ex-Shinra fuckers and one of 'em gone loopy and smashed himself up." Barret grumbled.

"Yeah yeah, I love you too," Cid grumbled back. Vincent had been laid on the bunk and had been unconscious for what had seemed like an hour, but for the two conscious prisoners with no way of telling time, it might have only seemed like hours before they hear any noise on the other side of the door.

"Hey, AVALANCHE scum, hope your ready to talk." a deep gravely voice yelled to them as the heard the keycard sliding though the door.

The door opened. Five heavily armed Shinra guards obviously had been expecting some form of resistance. There was none and quickly the guards learned why. One of the prisoners, the man with the metal claw, was lying on the bench bleeding profusely from his head.

"What tha?" one of the guards shot out. "What's wrong?"

"His damned head's busted open, what do you think is wrong!" Cid yelled back at him. Normally this kind of response would have been returned with a rifle butt to the head, however, the guards were more worried about the bleeding man. They had been given specific instruction not to harm any of them too badly. Especially him.

"Code 13. Repeat code 13." Of one the guards called off into his hand radio. A different guard drew his weapon and backed Cid and Barret into the corner to keep them out of the way. "Alright, you're bud here's going to get some help. Now tell us what's going on. And I don't want any bullshit."

"He walked over to the wall and slammed his head against it," Cid told him. This was obviously not the response the guard wanted. He showed his disbelief by slamming the but of his rifle into Cid guts.

"What about you? You going at' tell me what happened?" the guard turned to Barret.

"I ain't gonna tell you Shinra punks jackshit," Barret asserted.

"You want some of what your friend got?" the guard raised his rifle to strike. Another guard grabbed the barrel preventing it from moving anywhere.

"You sure you what to go beating on these guys, Sarge? We're going to have enough trouble with the skinny guy." The man identified as Sarge lowered his weapon but the hardened grimace on his face only illustrated his distaste with the idea.

Two more guards rushed into the room followed by an elderly woman and a boy who looked to be in his mid to late teens. They both wore long white coats, rubber gloves, and goggles. The boy carried a bag. Neither of them said anything but went straight to Vincent. The boy opened the bag up and pulled out a small spray bottle, some tape, and gauze. He pulled off Vincent's head band and pushed back his hair. Then he sprayed and wiped off the wound as best as he could and quickly bandaged it. He looked up towards the woman for approval but she frowned. She then reached into the bag and pulled out a heavier bandaged and wrapped it around Vincent's head.

"Well, you going to make yourself useful or not?" she said to the guards. "Help me get him to the infirmary." the boy lifted Vincent up and wrapped Vincent's arm around his head. Another guard did the same with Vincent's clawed arm. Two of the guards followed with weapons drawn.

"You'll get yours," Sarge threatened Barret as he closed the door. Barret's expression never changed.

Reeve looked at the pHs AVALANCHE used. He sat there for a moment with his finger over the send button. It was one of those moments were he wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing or not. More and more he had faces these sort of tribulations. Even if it was the right thing, it still didn't feel good. He turned on a small device that he had been made for him so he could use Cait Sith's voice without activating the robot itself. Finally he pushed the button.

Reeve sat there for a minute as listening to it ring. For a moment, he thought about hanging back up. It rang several times. More so than it should have. Maybe nobody was paying attention to it. Finally there was an answer.

"Hello," Red XIII's voice came from across the other end of the line.

"Hey, Red! What's up? Doesn't any body answer the phone these days?" Reeve easily sunk into the levity of Cait Sith.

"Sorry about that. Tifa and Yuffie are having another one of there spats."

"Ooh. Do tell," Reeve continued.

"Let's just say, leaving these two together wasn't the greatest idea in the word. I think Yuffie's trying to get on her nerves as much as possible. Right now Tifa's actually trying to chase her down on crutches. That's why they didn't answer the phone. And me? Well, the lack of opposable thumbs sometimes limits what I can do." Red chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess it would," he laughed. "How'd you answer then?"

"Pushed it down onto the floor and tapped the button with my claws. So, Why'd you call?"

"Just checking in. Seeing if everything's alright,"

"Actually it's not. Hurry up and get back here. Please." Red laughed a little bit. Reeve did the same.

"How about Cloud and Aeris. What's up with them?"

"Haven't heard from them."

"I'm sure they're alright."

"Yeah, Cloud strikes me as the kind of person who can take care of himself. Unless of course the Shinra actually caught them."

"Trust me. If the Shinra had Cloud or Aeris, I'm sure I would've overheard some commotion about it," for once Reeve wasn't lying to his friend. It made him feel a tiny fraction better.

"Ah yes, your man on the inside. Who is it exactly, if you don't mind me asking?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," a light flicked on Reeve's desk, the signal that his secretary was calling him. "Listen I have to go right now. Vincent and Cid send there love."

"Hmmmph. I'm sure they do," Red XIII said. Reeve hung up and switched his line to intercom.

"Yes, Em?" reeve spoke into the machine.

"Reeve? Is that you? What's wrong with your voice?" she asked. Reeve quickly removed the Cait Sith simulator, as he liked to call it.

"Nothing. Go ahead."

"Professor Hojo is here to see you," She said.

"Send him right in." Reeve told her and before he could even switch off the device, Hojo walked through the doors to his office. Hojo looked around as he walked in. he was rarely ever in Reeve's office and from his expression didn't much care for it.

"What is it?" Hojo said coldly without bothering to take a seat.

"Actually, I have a few things to ask you if it's not too much trouble," as soon as Reeve started talking Hojo's expression changed. previously he had worn a look of utter distain. Now his expression was a worn tolerance, much like you would see on someone who had to listen to a four year's imaginative excuses.

"Make it quick. My time is quite valuable," without asking permission, Hojo picked up Reeve's Cait Sith simulator and started to examine it.

"You know how I've been working as a spy with AVALANCHE?" Reeve started.

"Yes yes. Do continue." he said in a tone what suggested he wouldn't care if Reeve was working as a spy, an assassin, or even leading the organization. Hojo flipped the simulator between his fingers

"I wanted to know some information on one of the ones we have captured. That way I could go back…,"

"Anyone in particular?" Hojo glared suspiciously.

"I'm curious about the man who claimed to be the former Turk. I want to know who he is. If he's who he says he is, he should be about your age, but instead he looks to be in his twenties." Reeve quickly spit the words out as fast as he could so neither his own nervousness or Hojo would stop him.

"You might want to mind to your own business, " Hojo said. He turned his back to Reeve and took a few steps away. "But you're curious. You never did know when to shut up and stay out of things. Let me just give you a warning. The man is dangerous. Perhaps more so than you'll ever know. Is that all?"

"Err…anything you could tell me? About the others I mean. How about Aeris?" quickly as he said it he realized Hojo might not know her by name. "The Ancient," he added.

Hojo turned back to face Reeve. His face practically glowed with superiority. Reeve actually did something right. Hojo was more than happy to lecture him on a subject were he was the sole expert. If he got Hojo talking enough, he might be able to worm a some details about Vincent out as well.

"Never thought I'd end up rottin' in a cell," Barret muttered.

"You won't. They'll take us out back and shoot us as soon as they figure the political spin to put on it," Cid grumbled back.

"Nice. How ya' figure the others are doin'?" Barret asked

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Cid shot back at him. "What ya' think I'm going to yell really loud and they'll hear me?"

"Hell, calm down now. Just askin',"

"Well don't." Cid and Barret sat there for a few more moments in silence. Before Cid finally asked a question. "What do you figure the deal with Vincent is?"

"The guy's up at' something'. It ain't like him to just go and flip out like that,"

"I know. There ain't no telling what with that guy though. He's a deep one. I notice you haven't said anything about Cait Sith since we got thrown in here."

"Fuck him. Next time I see that little shit I'm breakin' him in half." Barret slammed his fist hard against the wall. "Damned Shinra piece of shit!"

Vincent was lying on the medical cart. They had quickly gone to work on him. His headband had been removed and the wound cleaned with a mild disinfectant. Fortunately, he hadn't needed any stitches. Currently, his headband had been replaced with heavy bandages and he was left shackled to the table for further observation.

This had all been done before he regained consciousness, because if he had come around they would have needed to sedate him. With no medical records and no knowledge of what he might be allergic to, this could be a very dangerous prospect. As it was, they were just glad that he wasn't much of a bleeder. It was a rather deep wound and infection still seemed possible.

Of the two doctors who had come to see Vincent and take him away, the older female, a woman named Cammings, had left to go down to the medical station on ten floors down to pick up some additional paperwork that they had lacked at her station. That left the younger male doctor, a man named Rhoader watching over the patient with three lower ranking Shinra guards.

Although they weren't too concerned with watching him. None of them were really doing much watching. There was nothing to watch. Vincent was still out cold and handcuffed to the table. Shroder was playing solitaire on the computer waiting for Cammings's return. The guards alternated in talking amongst themselves about women they thought were hot and the latest sports scores. Rhoader stayed out of their conversation. He already had his opinion on who was attractive. Cammings was the reason he had asked to transfer to this section of the medical division. Not that he had ever tried to get her attention. He doubted she'd care anyway. He went back to playing his digital card game while he waited for his partner to return. Rhoader was currently five wins out of twelve games and bored out of his mind. With nothing else to do, he got up to look at his only patient.

When Vincent had first been wheeled in, he wondered why nobody had bothered to disarm him. It wasn't until he tried for himself that he realized the metal claws were actually part of the man. Rhoader could only wonder why anyone would have such a prosthetics. The exteriors design was quite primitive but if it worked like he thought it did, then they had to have used some rather extensive nerve grafting. Rhoader bent over to look closely at it.

That was when Vincent's head slammed hard into his own forehead. Rhoader stumbled backwards both in pain and shock. Vincent tried to move further. His good arm was shackled to the table and his mechanical arm was still inoperable. He had hoped that it's deactivation was based solely in the cell.

Vincent stood up and rolled off the cart. He walked over to the cowering doctor, dragging the wheeled table drug behind him. Rhoader was to shocked to scream. Vincent stepped down onto the doctor's hand. "Make one sound and you die," Vincent said to him. "Now do you have the keys to the handcuffs?" Rhroader shook his head no. "Pity." The former Turk quickly raised his leg and smashed his metal boots against the man's head. There was a loud cracking sound and the doctor lay there unmoving. Vincent didn't know if he was dead, nor did he care.

"Halt!" one of the guards said as they ran into the room. Vincent calmly walked towards their leader. "Halt! Didn't you hear me! I said halt!" he cried out again. Vincent smiled. He had heard quite fine. However there were other voices he was listening to at the moment. They were much less civil. The guard produced his tazer and struck Vincent with him sending enough electricity to drop a man twice Vincent's side.

The former Turk fell to his knees. His arm nearly jerked out of it's socket, still being attacked to the table by handcuffs. It had been quite a while since he had been hurt this much. His arm was killing him and his body was near the point of collapse form the earlier blood loss and the more recent shock.

Things were starting to look up.

"Hit me," Vincent told the man. "Hard." Vincent approached the guard again with a twisted grimace on his face. The guard could have sworn he hard heard a growling sound. He wasted no time in sending another fierce shock through Vincent. Vincent fell to the floor into spasms. He thrashed so violently, it seemed as if he would break his own back.

"Quite fascinating." Reeve said to break into Hojo's tirade. "You'd never suspect anything like that by looking at her and frankly, I hadn't given the matter much thought."

"Precisely. Hence, what I said about the evolutionary advantages," Hojo smiled at him. For the first time since he had met the man, Hojo actually seemed happy. A good happy, much different than his normal "I'm just imagining what I could do to you in my lab" creepy form of happy he normally showed. This was a "I'm smarter than you are and you are willing to admit it," kind of happy.

"If it's not to much of a bother, I'd like access to some of your reports," Reeve said. "The dumbed down versions of course,"

"I'll have to think about that one," Hojo seemed to clam back up. Reeve sensed it as well. In the Professor's mind there was nothing more valuable than knowledge. Talking about something was a different matter than passing along your files. Reeve couldn't help but wonder how much useful information he would get anyway. Hojo was notorious for altering his records.

Before Reeve could reach any decision in the matter, Hojo's pHs rung. He pulled it out from where it had been clipped to his belt and spoken into it. "Professor Hojo, speak," Reeve had no clue who he was talking but Hojo's expression quickly changed from calm to furious. "Contain it until I arrive," he shouted into the pHs line. "If anything happens, I'll personally have your heads." Hojo jammed the device into his pocket and rushed to the door without saying anything to Reeve.

Reeve waited a few brief moments and then followed Hojo out the door . "Em," he addressed his secretary "If Hojo comes back, have him wait and if anyone asks for me, regardless how long I'm gone, tell them I'll be right back."

The creature that was once Vincent charged through the guards. They were pointing some metal devices at him, they would flash and he'd feel stings of pain. A more intelligent creature would have realized that he was being shot, but the Galian beast was by no means intelligent, It was the exact reason Vincent had tried to focus his transformation into this particular beast. The former Turk still had enough will power to steer the creature in the direction he wanted.

The Galian was becoming annoyed. The humans had opened their mouths and made loud noises at him again. Then they pointed things at him and hurt him. He ripped his claws through the walls as a show of strength. Surely they would realize their metal hurting things weren't as powerful as he was. Some of the humans turned and ran. Another pulled out a small metal box and made more mouth sounds into it. The Galian paid no mind to this. He blew his fiery breath across the crowd of humans, reducing them to no more than ash. It was such a waste of good meat.

The beast charged through the halls. It didn't exactly know where it was going but somewhere in the back of its mind, it felt a voice directing it. When humans got in it's way, the beast would kill them. Sometimes he would burn them, sometime he would smash them against the wall, sometimes he would rip them apart. That was the problem with humans. They broke too easily. Still, they could be rather tasty, especially the smaller ones with the bumpy chests. They were so much chewier. The Galian rushed around the corner and found it's self face to face with a small squad of armed guards. If the creature understood what smiling was, he would have.

As Hojo ran towards the security center, Reeve made his way to the scientist's lab. Despite his conversation with the him, Reeve had really learned nothing of practical value. Hojo had no secretary, he was fortunate enough for that, but all the real data he needed would be highly encrypted. Fortunately, Reeve had the solution for that too. Reeve used his ID card in the scanner to access the inner lab.

"Ready, pal?" Reeve said to the robot he carried in his arms. "You realize this might hurt a little bit, right?"

"Let's just see what he has under up his sleeves," Cait Sith's response came. With that, Reeve opened the back panel on Cait Sith's head and rerouted several of the wires. Knowing that Cait wasn't really alive didn't change the fact that it looked like the cat was in pain. When he had finished his makeshift wiring job inside Cait's head, he hooked a small jack from the robot cat to a laptop on Hojo's desk. Cait Sith's eyes flashed and began to roll back on themselves, giving him the look of some one possessed.

Reeve pulled his pHs back out of his pocket and used the speed dial to reach his office. "Em, I don't care how you do it, but I need you to find some way of letting me know before hand when Professor Hojo's coming back to the lab. Call me when he starts to head this way. Do that for me, and I'll take you out to dinner sometime."

Hojo tried to ran toward the security center. He began gasping for breath before he had even made it halfway. His body was too old and frail for such exertion. The professor leaned against the wall. His heart was pounding way to fast. The thought that he could have easily given the access code to a security force member had never crossed his mind. He wanted to be the one to hurt Vincent. He had to be the one to do it.

He began walking again when he lungs stopped aching so much and broke into small slow sprints when he had the energy. He was almost to the elevator when he turned a corner and found himself face to face with a large humanoid beast covered in blood.

Some little voice inside Galian told him that this scrawny man was a very bad man.

Coming Next Chapter: Hello, it's me