Author's Note:
Reeve: And now we're back for another chapter of 'Promised Empire.'
Elena: Hey, Reeve. Have you seen Reno?
Reeve: Not since I stabbed him in the face with a broken beer bottle after he tried to blackmail me.
Elena: Oh. Okay. Just checking.
Reeve: Tyramir doesn't own the rights to Final Fantasy. Heck, Tyramir is so broke, he practically has no earthly possessions at all.
Chapter Nine
Resurrection
Reeve looked over the small army of stuffed dolls that lined the walls in awed amusement. Backs against the wall were large, pink moogles, all wider and more muscular than their real, smaller counterparts that they had been modeled after. And in front of each mog was a small cat standing on two legs, at attention, with one hand raised to forehead in salute. All of the cats wore little red capes and majestic crowns, all appearing regal and obedient, yet mocking, in their collective stance.
He nearly laughed.
This... this small army of toys were what nearly killed him and cost him a large portion of his own mind? They looked harmless. And yet, deep inside them were circuitry that was directly linked into his own brain by an implant that may or may not still be working.
And that was the question. Was the implant still working?
He looked about the room, and spotted what he was sure he was looking for. At the end of the room, flanked by a pair of Cait Sith units, was a large computer screen, complete with a set up that probably included the computer's hardware, processor, and anything else it could need. It looked like something from an old sci fi flick. Sitting in front of the computer was an office chair, and to its left was something that looked like a hospital bed with gadgets and gizmos coming out of it, most centering around where the person's head would lay.
He tried to remember what it was for, and drew a blank. He grunted. Go figure. Not being able to remember any details about the machine that had caused the trauma which resulted in his memory loss. Not particularly surprising at all. Especially since, according to the doctors, his mind was blocking out anything to do with the Cait Sith units as a way of preventing him from reliving the overload from using multiple Cait Sith units at once.
He couldn't remember it, but.... What if I tried to think logically about what it could be used for?
The thought came to him in a rush, and the grin that came on nearly split his face in two. Brilliant. He was a technical genius. According to Rufus, he had helped design everything involved with the Cait Sith unit. So, why not?
Making his way across the room, he was much like a child with a new toy. Stripping off his jacket, tie and shirt, he opened the machine up and went to work. He played around with it, fiddled with wires, poked at pieces of circuitry and wiring, and even sent out one of the guards at the door for tools.
He was at it for hours, but he didn't notice. He was in his element. No more paper work, no more phone calls, no more suits, no executives. He got his pants dirty with oil and Mako. At one point his watch got stuck in the machine, and wrenching it free, he managed to break it. Shrugging, he tossed it aside. It was only a knock off anyway, only worth a couple thousand gil. He smiled at the thought, remembering back when 'a couple thousand gil' was a year's salary for him.
Yes, this was how it was supposed to be. Playing with machines, tinkering. This was his passion, not playing around behind a desk, trying to help run a company. That was suit work, and he was beginning to finally realize how much he despised suit work.
He mused at the time he spent at Cosmo Canyon as he worked, remembering Bugenhagen and his passion for both nature and machines. He always wished to be like that. So smart and wise and clever, and yet at the same time, so peaceful, so content with the knowledge and learning and being able to sit back and do nothing but learn for the sake of learning. No hurrying, no rush to fill a quota. None of that. Just being a scholar for the sake of it. If only he could do that.
But no... he was stuck here, with Shinra, as Rufus' right hand man. He felt almost like a lackey, a henchman. The thought was depressing, and he firmly pushed it aside by summoning a guard with his cell phone and getting him to fetch a pot of coffee for him.
He had been down there, playing around with the machine for nearly fourteen hours straight when he realized what it was for, and laughed. It was a diagnostic system for the microchip inside his head! He felt a little foolish, but didn't regret the time he had spent working on the machine. It had been... fun. Something he'd nearly forgotten.
Well... I suppose since I've figured out what it's for and how to use it...
Not even hesitating, Reeve sealed the machine back up, wiped his hands off on his pants, and hopped up onto the 'bed' on the mechanical monstrosity. He looked around, and found the control pad to his left, attached to a swivel designed to make it easy to pull towards him for personal use, or to move away from him for a fellow professional to use.
Looking over the layout on the control pad, he hit the appropriate keys, and glanced over to the monitor on the computer to his side. The screen flickered on, and displayed the words, "System Ready. Proceed?"
He tapped in the letter Y, then let himself relax. One of the machines that rested near his head moved, then came directly over his eye. Placing itself gently on his face, a bright red light began to flicker into his eye. He wanted to wince and shut his eyes, but found that he couldn't. Gritting his teeth, he waited out the offensive light as it communicated with the implant in his brain. It was over in under a minute, but his eye felt like it had nearly been burned out of its socket.
The machine moved away, resting once again roughly to the side and out of the way. Closing the eye that had been afflicted with the laser, he looked over to the monitor, reading what it said.
"Implant at functional level. 84 efficiency maintained. Self-repair initiated."
There was a long list of text afterwards, mostly details about the specifics of the implant and the sectors of it that were undergoing repairs. He typed in a query asking when the repair would finish.
"Twenty seven minutes," came the response.
Sighing, Reeve heaved himself off the bed and went to his coffee pot and poured himself a cup. Twenty seven minutes to make a decision. It didn't seem long enough. He had to make the decision now.
He sipped at his coffee, staring at the Cait Sith units. Rufus had told him two stories of the exploits of Cait Sith. Both stories, he had ultimately been a hero, able to battle his way to victory every time. This would be the strong right hand Rufus would need in the time to come. But dare Reeve risk another possible overload? And for a President that had proven deceitful?
He wasn't sure.
He glanced over to the monitor, and saw that the countdown for the repair had finished. That had gone by faster than expected. It hadn't seemed like twenty seven minutes had passed. So, what would he do?
"Oh, screw it," he said. He would just be testing the implant. Any decisions could be made afterward.
Walking back to the computer, he typed in a query, asking how to activate the implant. The computer merely responded, "Audibly speak system password."
What kind of answer was that? He growled in frustration. With his memory loss, he couldn't remember the password. He swore. He went through a list of every curse he knew in every language he had learned. Well, none of those were the password.
He tried his name. He tried 'moogle', 'Cait', 'Sith', 'Cait Sith', his parents' names, 'Rufus', 'Jenova', 'Bugenhagen', 'Cosmo Canyon'.... he went on and on, naming everything that came to mind. As a last resort, he started naming off members of Avalanche, wondering if he had changed it while a member of their group.
"Cloud." Nothing. "Barret." Nothing. "Tifa." Nothing. "Yuffie." Nothing. "Vincent." Nothing. "Aeris."
A surge of electricity roared through his brain, setting it on fire with agony and re-awakened nerves. As the chip came to life, so did his memory, screaming back to the surface. He wanted to shout, to collapse, to do anything. But he couldn't feel anything but the pain. He collapsed, or rather, he remembered collapsing.
When he came to, he was standing. How am I standing if I'm just waking up?
The question made sense, but no answer came. He looked about the room, confused. Everything seemed... smaller. And he wasn't in the same place in the room as he had been in before. Looking about frantically, he saw the source of his problem. Across the room was the crumpled form of Reeve.
He gasped as realization hit him. He was fully inside Cait Sith.
Author's Note:
Sorry this took so long. I was a bit stuck at the beginning, and kept putting it off. But once I got into it, I had some fun and moved on. I did the Tyramir challenge and succeeded! Took thirty minutes to finish once I got started!