Author's Notes: Hmmm… Had to get to this one sooner or later. Oddly enough it's the one I dread the most. I mean, there are so many 'beginnings' for Reeve, which one to take? Should I keep it along paths I have already used or give him something new and different? Ugh, not an easy prompt, but still good I hope.

Theme: Beginnings

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The Hacker

It was a dark room, save for the glow of three monitors and the varied lights on keyboards and towers indicating what was on and what wasn't. There was the periodic flash of a small white underscore on an otherwise dark screen on his right. To the left there was a screen of white on black with letters and characters and coding that would be gibberish to many people, but was perfectly understood by the one before them. And directly in front of him? Screens and screens of data that was forbidden, but accessed anyway. Dark eyes flashed again and again to the8 right to check for any change to the underscore. Occasionally they turned left as he shifted keyboards to add in a new piece of code or encryption. But his attention was mainly on the screen before him. The screen baring the red diamond shape that was the logo of Shin-Ra Electric Company.

All you could hear if you came in was the beeping and whirring and blipping, but more than anything, the sound of keystroke after keystroke. It was a mechanical sound, an electrical sound, the sound of technology. How easily it covered the organic sounds of his stomach rumbling and his breathing and the constant beating of his heart. Such things weren't welcome here. Being aware of them would cover the efficient aura that would overcome him when he dealt with these situations. Who knew what would happen if he lost the perfect efficiency. Who knew indeed.

The room wasn't what one would have expected. Two days earlier it had been a lavish suite at the most glamorous hotel in all of ShinRa's capital of Midgar, the plains city as it was called. Then it had smelled of fresh linens, the just out of a dryer smell that calmed you to the core. Now it wasn't like that anymore. It was all so sterile, almost smelling like a hospital. Metal and plastic and heat hung in the air, and the remains of some meal long forgotten. But little more could be expected of him.

Still, the air was thick with the tension he felt somewhere in the back of his mind. He could taste it in the back of his throat. Well, if tension was a bitter taste comparable to that powder used for instant coffee. That didn't change the fact that he could taste it. There was also a hint of fear in that taste. Apparently fear tasted like sour milk. Were he not so focused on the screen before him maybe he would have noticed it. But there was better use for his attention right now.

As it was this was a very bad idea. Then again, when wasn't it? This time he'd been foolish enough to take on the system with a fever. Really, all things considered it could have waited a day or two. Yes, he and his father would be heading back to Junon in that time and things would harder from the distance, but it would not have him burning with fever and having problems focusing right? Then again, this was important. Back home there would be the distractions of the family business. Here he had one chance to finally try his skills against the toughest system in the world to crack. Call it a hobby.

With a fever though he couldn't truly focus, he was slower than normal. Maybe this was why he didn't notice it at first. Notice the screen to his right lighting up with a sudden flow of data, and seconds before he looked over whoever or whatever had caused the reaction on the monitor wiped the data away, leaving the flashing underscore untouched on the white screen. Because he didn't notice things seemed to be rather smooth. He was deep in the Shin-Ra files, breaking encryption after encryption before finally logging out and leaving things untouched, in his own opinion. No sooner did he turn the expensive machinery off than a knock came at the door of the hotel room.

Slowly he rose from where he had seated himself on the floor and moved with a grace not expected of a computer geek, but natural for someone of the high breeding he had. The computers were left behind as he moved to the door of his room. What he met when the door was opened definitely made whatever good mood he might have had die in seconds.

"Mister Reeve Tuesti I presume? Son of Junon architect Robert Andros Tuesti?" the man there, clad in a flawless black suit asked of the young man answering the door.

"I'm afraid I'm at a disadvantage," the seventeen year old responded, though he was sure that he should recognize the dark haired Wutain.

"My name is Tseng, and I am with the Administrative Research Department of Shin-Ra Electric Company. Would you please come with me sir?"

Odd how the older male was calling him 'sir'. Of course, until just who represented the Administrative Research Department came to mind. A Turk. Shit. He'd been caught…

"Of course," Reeve said, bowing his head.

And in that moment, life as he knew it changed.