Beyond the Reflection

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII.

Summary: When Reno takes on the investigation of a case in Wutai, he gets more than he bargained for. Mainly: one obnoxious, spoiled, sarcastic, and infuriating brat. (Among other things of course.)

Vibrant Crimson

By:ClassicLit

Thank you so much for everyone who is reading this story. SOOOOOO sorry for the late update. I've just been busy and had an attack from the plot bunnies. I'm sorry. Promise the next one will come much quicker. Hope you enjoy the chapter. ALSO in the last chapter I accidentally said that Yuffie and Reno got called to the Temple of the Ancients…that's obviously not right. Sorry. I mean to say the fourth floor of the Pagoda…hm…looks shiftily around. Thank you so much for all of you who reviewed. Love you all!

When both Reno and Yuffie calmed down Godo casually gestured to the two seats in front of him. The duo looked at each other before assuming their 'assigned' seating as was directed. Reno through the whole ordeal was not a very happy camper. He didn't like taking orders from his officials—as in the people who pay him—or more precisely the people who pay for his apartment and booze. Was there really anything else he needed? He definitely didn't enjoy taking orders from Godo…after all Reno never agreed to live in monarchic conditions. He rather enjoyed the mobocracy—or rather plutocracy. Yuffie had to shoot him a death glare before he actually sat down.

"We finally figured out what was stolen from the Pagoda on the day the two of you disappeared." Godo said somberly with a hint of amusement at the second part of his statement. Reno couldn't help but roll his eyes. They JUST figured it out? "It was a small mirror that was hanging off the statue of the dragon in the left corner." Godo continued; ignoring Reno and pointing to the aforementioned statue.

"So what's the depressing atmosphere for. I'll go buy another mirror." Yuffie, always the optimistic one. Godo shook his head.

"It's not just any mirror; you can't buy another one like it in a store." He said a bit sadly.

"Don't tell me there is some wacko legend connected to it." Reno finally spoke up. Even though the comment was quite cheeky there was an underlying tone of something akin to dread. Godo looked up and nodded slowly. He then picked up an old-looking parchment that was lying on the floor next to him. He untied the blood-red ribbon that was tied in a neat knot around the scroll and after clearing his throat began reading.

"Out of everything that I leave for the generations that will surely follow; I would like to stress the importance of one item in particular. On the fourth floor of the Pagoda, among the assortment of different interesting-looking statues and other accessories of a shrine there is something very plain. A simple mirror hangs off one of the dragon statues, that is situated in the left corner of the square room. It is almost invisible due to the fancy background of the golden dragon; but it is there nonetheless. I first noticed it when I was reading and a red beam of light fell over the pages of my book. I mistook it for the setting sun, before I saw the ray change into a golden, then a green, and finally a purple color. I looked up and saw the small rhombus shaped mirror gleaming back at me; still shining with a vibrant purple hue. I looked around the room, but failed to spot any object that even faintly bears the color. Much less an object that could radiate it enough to make a beam flicker off the mirror.

I seized the mirror, bringing it closer to my eyes and to my great shock I couldn't see my reflection. All I could see was the purple light. I retreated that day to my study; but no matter what I tried doing, I couldn't get the phenomena out of my head. How could a mirror not reflect what is in front of it? Perhaps, it reflects what's inside it?

The next day I came back in the morning. I took the mirror and after brining it closer I saw my reflection. Am I crazy? Did I imagine what I saw yesterday? Or rather what I didn't see? It couldn't have been.

I was in a trance for the following few days. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't function. My brain seemed frozen. A week passed and I decided to revisit the source of my chagrin. At sunset I went back to the fourth floor and upon reaching the entrance my eyes were assaulted by a green light. The source of it was the mirror. I looked into it, and again I couldn't see my reflection.

I kept coming back to the mirror and every time I would see my reflection, except at sunset. At sunset I could only see the dancing light change form green, to red, to yellow, to purple. I tried moving everything golden and red out of the room, until only the brown walls remained, but still the mirror would show red and yellow. I don't even want to think about how it picked up on green and purple.

Every day, every hour, every minute of my time became consumed by thoughts of what this might mean. I have arrived at one conclusion soon after. The mirror shined the color of materia.

The journal continues after three years.

I'm too old. I can't move. I have become blind. Doctors say I might be going crazy. They don't understand. They don't understand my obsession. I need to see the mirror again. I can't, however. As I said, I'm blind. I'm dying.

Lord Kisaragi

First Ruler in the Kisaragi Line."

A tense hush fell on the room. Not so much fell as lasted throughout Godo reading the journal entry.

"Your Majesty." A young herald went into the room with a bow. "You're audience is requested at the Temple." Godo nodded and got up before wordlessly leaving the room with Staniv following closely behind.

Reno and Yuffie set there almost mesmerized face-to-face with the parchment, innocently lying on the wooden floor in front of the duo.

"The first ruler of the Kisaragi Line." Reno said while getting up. He picked up the parchment and skimmed it idly. Yuffie let out a rather derisive snort.

"I wouldn't trust much of what he says. The comment about the doctors considering him crazy is not so far from the truth." Yuffie said slowly while getting up herself.

"Runs in the genes then I see." Reno said while giving Yuffie a calculating look. She scowled.

"I'm not kidding. He was a crazy, old coot who shouldn't be trusted on a word said. This…" she threw her hands up in the air to make sure her point gets across "is a culture that believes absolutely everything. As long as it's a tradition it's taken for God's truth." She sighed and sat back down on the mat.

"So tell me" she said looking up at Reno who was leaning against the wall "why the hell would an ex-SOLDIER want this mirror?" Reno shrugged.

"Remember they're all injected with Mako. I wouldn't be surprised if they were all coots also." Yuffie smirked.

"Ah so you admit to being off your rocker." Reno scowled at her. "About time too Turkey." Then she shook her head as if to clear her thoughts and looked at Reno inquisitively. "So you think Deme…whatever his name is actually believed in some magical power of this mirror?" Reno shrugged again.

"As I said: I wouldn't put it past him." They lapsed into silence. It lasted for some time until Reno broke it with a rather alarmed expression on his face.

"Oi brat, did you hear that?" he asked looking at her.

"Hear what Turkey?" She asked standing up when he pushed off the wall and walked towards the middle of the room.

"Shh…listen." She strained her hearing, but still couldn't hear anything. She shook her head with an agitated sigh. She could hear birds, some people talking outside…hold it…outside?

"Do you mean the talking?" she asked him quietly. He walked towards her with a nod. "You don't think it's outside?" she asked even quitter now that he was very close. He shook his head in the negative. Then he did something she definitely wasn't expecting. He leaned in and snaked his arm around her waist while keeping his gaze on the ceiling. Yuffie froze. What the hell was he doing? Reno grinned cheekily at her shocked expression after retrieving what he was looking for from her belt. Mainly: the shuriken.

"Bastard." She spat when she saw HER shuriken gleaming in his hands.

"Why…whatever did I do?" he asked with an innocent expression on his face. She all but growled and took a rather large and pointedly exaggerated step away form him. "Bitter?" he asked with a smirk. She was going to respond, but their brewing spat was silenced by two voices that the both heard earlier. Reno put a finger to his lips and Yuffie nodded in obedience.

He walked towards the far wall and implanted the shuriken in it. Yuffie winced at her cherished weapon being so mistreated, but she decided to keep it quite for the time being and get the arrogant Turk later. He then calmly proceeded to step on HER shuriken and stand on it with his head reaching the ceiling. She almost lost it.

"You're going to break it Turkey." She urgently whispered. Who said he could do that to—may I remind you—HER shuriken. He turned to her and waved his finger at her with a hushed 'tsk'. She growled and folded her arms over her chest.

"If your fat ass will break my precious shuriken I'm coming after you." She sat down on the floor giving quite an interesting impression of a child throwing a temper tantrum. Reno was not lost on how the picture looked, but he decided to bother her later. He turned back to the ceiling and strained his hearing to see if he could discern the exchange upstairs. Somewhere between first hearing people upstairs and standing on the shuriken Reno considered that perhaps he was overreacting. It could have simply been representatives, or guards. Those though flew out of the proverbial window once he heard the hushed and alert manner in which the occupants of the fifth floor were speaking.

"This isn't going to happen." One voice whispered nervously. It was a rather high tenor and not aesthetically pleasing at all.

"Yes it is." Came a rather agitated answer. This was a pleasing baritone, but in Reno's current situation voices weren't exactly the dominant attention factors.

"But…" The tenor was interrupted by the second voice.

"No buts. We need the activation and then to Kalm." Said the baritone and Reno could hear shuffling as if they were searching for something.

"And we can destroy ShinRa?" the tenor asked hopefully.

"Shh." It seemed the whole topic was a hush-hush. Reno didn't waste much time by that point. Jumping off the shuriken he ran towards the elusive stairs that were on the other side of the room. Yuffie wretched her shuriken out of the wall—noting how Reno had quite the amount of strength to be able to drive it into the wall that deep—and ran after the Turk who was already half way up the stairs.

Reno had the misfortune of reaching the fifth floor first and getting fired at. Yuffie either not paying attention, or deciding not to do so, knocked right into the retreating red-head. They both fell in a heap onto the floor at the feet of the two perpetrators.

"Well, well, well. Aren't we in luck." It was the man with the baritone…who was also holding the gun, I might as well mention. "Both the princess brat and the nuisance from ShinRa." Yuffie tried to slowly crawl off Reno by that point, but the man pointed the gun straight at her with an infuriating 'tsk'. She froze in place and looked apologetically at the squashed Turk.

Reno on the other hand did not feel as threatened by the gun as Yuffie was. He calmly got up and helped Yuffie up as well without even looking in the direction of the aforementioned, POISED gun. Yuffie numbly accepted his outstretched hand before ducking right behind him. He dusted himself off slowly before finally looking up at the two dark figures and with a smirk—

"If she's a brat doesn't mean I have to suffer." He said trying to ease the atmosphere for Yuffie, but she didn't seem to take the bate.

"I don't think you heard the rest of the sentence." The tenor said with agitation. Reno couldn't see the face of either guy. They were both covered by black hoods from their long coats.

"You see I have attention span problems. I can't seem to pay full attention to dumbasses." He gave the two a rather fake, apologetic grin and shrugged. "Is that a crime?" The one with the tenor voice moved forward threateningly. Of course he misjudged one little detail. Reno was a Turk and didn't get intimidated that easily. That ended up in him looking like more idiotic. Thankfully, or unfortunately for Reno who was enjoying himself, the baritone broke the rather unnerving silence.

"I think I'll finish this right now." He said lifting the gun and pointing it directly at Reno's heart.

The sound of the fired shot echoed through the fifth floor. Three crimson drops fell fading into the brown of the wooden floor. Then another was added and soon the floor beneath Reno's feet was a rather unnerving red color. The two figures went as quietly as they came, completely wordless. Reno stood frozen in shock at what happened. What was she thinking!

"Yuff damn it." He said catching her limp body in his arms as the blood from the bullet wound in her shoulder spilled onto his hands.

"We're even Turkey." She said pointing a disoriented finger in his general direction as he laid her on the floor. "I didn't drown you didn't get shot." She said a bit more coherently.

"We sure are kid." He said while stripping his jacket and tying it around the pressure point on her arm. "We sure are."

You didn't actually think I'd kill Reno did you? Hope you liked this chapter. Also made it a bit longer for your pleasure. Thanks for reading. Please Review!