Days of Exile

Chapter 28 – Limbo

4 January 0008

Despite knowing that going to Nibelheim was what she wanted and had decided to do, Meia felt a pang of anxiety as she walked into the Shinra main lobby in the morning. Perhaps it was the guilt that sneaking into the mansion was like invading someone's privacy, even if it was a large conglomerate like Shinra. Perhaps it was a bit of fear that she would be caught.

Meia could not hide anyway. Sooner or later, she has to return to Shinra from her 'break'. She knew that worrying about being seen in Nibelheim can be done later. Right now, if Meia did not show up for work, she will definitely look suspicious. You have made the decision to go to the Shinra Mansion, face the consequences. She told herself. At least they're not grabbing you out of nowhere ever since you've stepped into the lobby. She smiled to herself, glancing at the minimalistic decorum around her.

When Meia first entered Shinra to be a Turk, the Shinra Building looked very different. In the last few years, around the time that Haato woke up from his coma, Shinra underwent a huge renovation that all but demolished the building. Meia hated it.

Gone were the exhibition rooms, now the main lobby only contained a few surviving models of some Shinra motorcycle and truck. But even those were missing now, after the night where Sephiroth assassinated former President Leon Shinra. Apparently the current AVALANCHE had hijacked them and escaped. Meia thought it was hilarious. Not that she was a master strategist, but who puts Mako fuel in their exhibition objects?

The corridors were white and unwelcoming. The SOLDIER floor was less vibrant, though that was Meia's personal opinion. Even the cafeteria food tasted less delicious. The only thing she liked about the renovation was the lifts. It used to be in the large exhibition room behind the reception counter, so Meia had to walk into the room in order to use the lift. This time, it was located right by the main entrance. The view from the newly located lift was similar to the old one – a stunning city view from the top. The previous view was of Sectors 1 and 2, now the renovated lifts were facing Sector 4 and 5. Secretly, Meia preferred the new lifts. Sometimes, she would look out of the full-length glass windows and look down at Sector 4 and 5, imagining that she could see Sunny, Carmelle and Tihan waving at her...

Meia recollected her senses, for she was daydreaming again. She quickly clocked in her card and walked towards the lift. Today would be the day that her conscience will run amok in her head. Even though she had assured, justified and encouraged herself to be stronger, her heart was pounding and her thoughts were running wild. Has Hojo already discovered what she had done? Meia had ensured that no one knew, but one could never be too sure. What would Hojo do to her if he knew? That thought alone triggered her brain into a state of mental panic.

The lift doors opened at Floor 67. Obviously Hojo was not there, with handcuffs and guards ready. Meia released a breath she did not know that she was holding. Don't be ridiculous. She shook her head. There was no way she would be caught, because she did a lot of preparation and planning to prevent that. I'm going to stride up to the lab, greet Hojo as if nothing has happened. Walking faster and faster until it seemed to match her heartbeat, she burst into the laboratory, where she saw the older scientist peering at something in his notes. He did not look up to acknowledge her entrance, but that was nothing new.

"Professor." Meia's voice cracked and she subdued it into an unassuming cough. "Professor," she said again, this time more confident and natural. There was no response from the scientist. Again, it was not anything unusual. Meia awkwardly walked over to her desk and placed her bag on the table.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the scientist stand from his notes. He looked at her and she quickly met his gaze. "Well, are we getting down to work or need I humour you with idle talk?" He tapped a stack of papers on a small table next to him.

"Oh, not at all!" Meia responded.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Professor Hojo frowned, his wrinkles deepening as he did so. "The research is not going to complete itself!" He strode out of the laboratory, but not before saying something along the lines of completing them by lunch. Meia stared at the empty laboratory now, feeling weird and relieved all at once. She was not caught nor confronted… for now.

"Hey there, little chicky."

Meia could have sworn her heart jumped out of her chest at the sound of Reno's voice. I'm totally not ready to face Reno as Matilda! She thought, clutching her shirt as if it could stop her heart from jumping out. Still, there was no avoiding Reno once he made up his mind to talk.

She turned around slowly. The redhead looked as unkempt as ever, and his messy red hair was tied in a ponytail. Meia suspected that he did not comb it through this morning. His white shirt was crumpled and his blazer could use a good ironing. She gave the redhead a wry smile. "Hello, Mr. Reno." She greeted weakly.

To think just last night, they were at the sundae shop, enjoying each other's company. She caught herself smiling at the good memory. Now, she was Matilda the lab assistant, not Meia. No fooling around.

Reno walked closer and slipped an arm over her shoulder. Although she caught the familiar smell of fresh laundry, Meia visibly stiffened. Why am I so tense around Reno? She thought. She probably could also taste vanilla ice cream if she tried hard enough, though that was just her imagination.

"You know you don't have to call me 'Mr. Reno', Matilda."Reno grinned. Meia shrugged, but was unable to smoothly shrug his arm away. "So I haven't been seeing you around. What's up?"

Meia hid a groan inside. How many times are you going to ask me this? She thought. "I took a short break." She tried again, this time successfully shrugging (more like squirming) out of Reno's touch. As Matilda, they were definitely not that close to be comfortable with physical contact.

"Cool." Reno allowed his arm to fall back by his side. "What did you do?"

"Took a break, travelled around." Meia felt her confidence waning. It sounded almost like an interrogation. Had Hojo or the Turks suspected her disappearance? Meia felt her body tingle with fear. Was she ready for a confrontation if it happens? She supposed she was not, that was the truth.

"Awfully early to take a break, huh?" Remarked Reno offhandedly.

He was not wrong. Taking a break less than a month after being employed was not common. Swallowing at nothing in her already-dry mouth, Meia answered. "I just wanted a small breather. You know it's not a breeze to work with Ho-" She clamped her mouth with her hand dramatically.

Reno laughed. "Ah, ah, ah," he wagged a finger at Meia. "It's naughty of you to say bad things about your supervisor, isn't it?" He wagged his eyebrows cheekily.

In response, Meia dipped her head. "I'm very sorry for my outburst," apologized Meia. "I didn't mean to-"

"Relax, Matilda." Reno sighed. "Do I look like I'm going to rat out on you?"

His arrogant smile unsettled her.

You better not be, Reno. Meia nearly narrowed her eyes at him. "Please don't tell Professor!" She squeezed her eyes tight and clasped her fingers together. "It was just a slip of the tongue!"

Reno rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Need he play this out? Meia thought. He is definitely playing with my Matilda persona. No wonder the female staff are so charmed… or irritated by him. "Gee, Matilda, I don't know…" He said slowly, observing her discomfort. "I'm a Turk."

Meia was amused and irritated. More irritated than amused. Reno hardly treated her this way. As Meia, Reno dotes on her and becomes the combination of big protecting brother and playful lover. It was a refreshing change to see how he interacted with the others. Perhaps the complaints from Leia, Alana and Cissnei were not ungrounded after all. "I beg of you," she pleaded. "Shall this just be between the two of us?"

"Well… Turks are supposed to report small things like these, but you know, we do make exceptions with something extra…"

Bribery. Meia was genuinely shocked. Has he been asking for bribes? Is this how the Turks work in Shinra? She had never heard of her former colleagues collecting any forms of bribery.

Looking at her shocked face, Reno laughed. "Don't be too serious! I don't do monetary bribes, although I don't refuse them." He hid a knowing smile to himself. "All I'm asking is…" He raised one finger. "One date."

"Wait, what?" Meia took a double-take.

"You don't want to pay me gil, then you'll pay me with your time." He shrugged. "How about that?"

Somewhere inside, Meia could have exploded into a million questions. Did Reno just ask a date from a girl who is not his girlfriend? Is he always like that with other girls? Wasn't Meia his girlfriend? Why is he even…

"No." Meia shook her head. "Are you nuts? I don't even know you."

"Isn't that a good reason why a date is in order?"

"That's a dumb reason to go out alone with a stranger."

"How cruel," sniffed Reno. "Are we considered strangers?" He placed a hand on her shoulder. "All I want is to know you better. You're a fine young lady. That's all I know. Is there more to you that I may want to know? That's what I want to find out."

Meia's spine tingled again. She was sensitive to his words and how it seemed like it held more meaning than it sounded. "It's none of your business what my personal life is like." Meia mumbled. Suddenly, she did not really feel like talking anymore. Either Reno was playing the whole subtle interrogation with regards to her sudden absence, or he was crossing the line with his flirtations. Either way, she was feeling a little anxious… and hurt. "I'm going to go." She said with some sort of conviction in her tone. She was not going to stand around and have Reno flirt with a girl who was not 'Meia'.

"But, but we've not even settled our date!"

"I'm not in the mood to take your jokes."

"I'm not joking," said Reno, his grinning face loosening to give her a sincere smile.

"Please be respectful then," Meia said seriously, unfazed by his smile. "This is a workplace. You are making me very uncomfortable."

"Oh?" Asked Reno, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. "What do you mean by that?" Deciding that the conversation was going nowhere, Meia mumbled an excuse to leave. "No, wait." He pulled her back gently.

Whatever it is, don't look at him. She commanded herself. She could not afford to let Reno see the jealousy on her face."Please don't bother me like this." Meia said, looking away so that he could not see her embarrassed face. "If Professor Hojo sees this, I wouldn't hear the end of it."

Reno snorted in reply. "Come on, you and I both know that Hojo doesn't give a hoot about anything else apart from his research."

That's true. Meia thought. Feeling bold, she added tentatively. "Many people feel uncomfortable, seeing less than professional relationships in the office. I'm here to work for Hojo. Go find your girlfriend and leave me alone, or something."

"Girlfriend… huh." Reno pondered on the word as if he has never heard of it before. "What makes you think I have a girlfriend?"

Don't you? Meia demanded in her head. Instead, she asked, "You don't?" She tried an embarrassed laugh. "I've heard many rumours about your flamboyant personality." That much was true. "Surely you have many girls who are interested in you, and I'm just a normal lab assistant…" Meia felt her face burn as she continued to rattle on brainlessly. Now it looks like I'm actually interested in him.

To her frustration, Reno indeed, thought that way. He skillfully picked up that dangling sentence like a keen and playful cat. "Oh? What's with the sudden interest?" He grinned. "Interested in me now?" Meia rolled her eyes at him. Leaning closer, he smirked. "I'm flattered that you think I have a girlfriend. I'll warn you though, falling for a Turk is bad business, Matilda."

"I'm just being polite," said Matilda, this time not really pretending that she was irritated.

To her amusement, a phone call interrupted whatever Reno was going to say. That always happens whenever we talk. Meia mused, watching Reno's jovial face turn sober and resigned. Today, it will be a good thing.

Reno flipped his PHS with a loud snap. "Back to work, I go. Rude is going to bite my head off if I don't get some work done." He stared at Meia. "Don't think that we're over on this topic," he said cheekily.

"I think that we have pretty much summarized this conversation, Mr. Reno," said Meia. "I'm not going out on that date with you because it's not worth my time."

"You know what?" Reno leaned closer to her, so much so that she could smell his comforting scent. Someday, Meia will ask him what made him smell like that constantly. "I think you're playing hard to get." He said with a smug smile.

Meia narrowed her eyes at him. "I think you're being annoying."

Shrugging, Reno answered, "I get that pretty often." Finally, he looked like he had had enough of playing around. "See you around, Mats." He called back with a light wave of his hand. Before Meia could even retort, Reno was too far away.

Mats? Meia winced. That's a horrible nickname.

6 January 0008

Reeve watched AVALANCHE from the monitor of his tablet, but he was not really watching them. He was thinking about everything that had happened. After rescuing Barret and Tifa from Junon, AVALANCHE spent almost four days going to every part of the Planet to look for the missing Cloud Strife. It was today that they had finally found him in Mideel. Reeve shook his head, remembering the distant look on Cloud's face. According to Mideel citizens, he was travelling through the Lifestream and was stranded on the shores of Mideel, close to braindead.

Everyone marveled at how it was possible, but Reeve knew. The Lifestream is a constant flow of life throughout the Planet. Surely there was some way to travel from the Northern Continent to Mideel in the South via the Lifestream. Just that Cloud Strife had severe repercussions from this "trip". Cloud was unable to speak or move – a case of serious Mako poisoning. Reeve kept quiet – he had seen it too many times on the faces of rejected SOLDIER candidates.

So many young, ambitious dreams were shattered because of their inability to accept the Mako. Reeve thought solemnly. He could not bear to see Tifa's expression when she saw Cloud in the wheelchair. Both he and Cait Sith wisely retreated to the Highwind for further instructions...

Now, in the monitor, Reeve saw that AVALANCHE has returned to the Highwind. Reeve glanced up and around the meeting room in Floor 66, Shinra Building, Midgar. Scarlet and Heidegger were talking in low voices. It was a no brainer to suspect that they were planning something. Palmer was twitching nervously in his seat, and no one was bothering Reeve. Reeve continued to look at his tablet, not caring about the movement of people around him.

He watched Barret, the official leader of AVALANCHE (though everyone looked to Cloud for direction). The large man was staring out of the window of the airship. "What're we gonna do now? What can WE do?" The Corel native grunted.

Barret turned around and regarded the remaining AVALANCHE: Cait Sith (or Reeve, not that any of them knew that), RedXIII, Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind (who was snoozing by the pilot cockpit). Yuffie Kisaragi was nowhere to be found, though that was not a cause for concern – her motion sickness made her as good as handicapped. "Huh? Ain't there nothin' we can do?" Before Nanaki could respond, Barret cut in. "An' don' go tellin' us to wait for Cloud to get better."

Reeve looked up to see that President Rufus had entered the meeting room and sent his commands to Cait Sith telepathically (for that is how he controls Cait Sith).

Cait Sith responded with, "Oh, I've got some news." Most of the time, unless Reeve specified the exact words to say, Cait Sith will rephrase Reeve's orders into something that sounded more Cait Sith than Reeve Tuesti.

"Yeah, what!?" answered Barret nastily. "That you a spy?"

Ouch. Thought Reeve. These people can be so merciless.

Reeve was not expecting any praise or trust, not after the revelation that Cait Sith was actually sent to spy on AVALANCHE activities. Still, treating Cait Sith like that was very uncalled for. However, Reeve did not blame Barret. Nobody knew that Cait Sith had a soul of its own. Many assumed that the robot controlled by Reeve has no emotions. When Barret said those words, he was definitely targeting at the man behind Cait Sith. No one knew that Cait Sith took these words personally too.

Barret was the only one venting his anger at Shinra, on Cait Sith. However, AVALANCHE was not entirely welcoming after the discovery of Cait Sith's true motives. Their behaviour towards Cait Sith barely changed, but Reeve sensed the difference. There was only one person in AVALANCHE who talked and believed in Cait Sith from the very beginning; she is dead now.

It was times like these that Reeve reconsidered his plans. Perhaps he could not work with AVALANCHE, even though they shared the same innocent dreams of saving the Planet. Perhaps he was the only naive one who believed that Shinra and the people could meet at a compromise. It was clear that Rufus Shinra will not stoop down to collaborate with the people but through Reeve, both parties could meet halfway.

Sometimes, Reeve wanted to leave AVALANCHE for good so that he could focus his attention at the current crisis: Meteor. But the face of Matilda Ederfeld, or rather, Meia Etsky, always appeared in his mind. He still wanted to work towards a future where people can enjoy everything the Planet has to offer without criteria or condition... Reeve cannot deny that no matter how futile it looked, AVALANCHE was his only hope of doing something significant to save the Planet.

Reeve sighed when he saw Cait Sith straighten itself. Another reason why he could not just leave AVALANCHE: Cait Sith genuinely liked this motley group of people.

The robotic cat walked up to Barret and said, "Yeah... I've already told you I was." There was no mistaking the sour note in the robot's tone, or was that influenced from Reeve? The man got his answer when Cait Sith turned away from Barret and he felt a familiar nagging thought in his mind. Reeve sighed, but gave in. He gave Cait Sith the autonomy to talk. Cait Sith spoke, without any bitterness in his voice. "Both Gya ha ha and Kya ha ha are up to something. Wanna eavesdrop?"

Reeve smiled to himself, looking at Heidegger and Scarlet respectively. Scarlet caught his eye and frowned questioningly at him. The President flipped his hair and faced the executives.

"Now then..." began Rufus Shinra. "We're faced with two issues." The blond raised a finger. "1. Destroy Meteor." He raised another finger. "2. Remove the barrier around North Cave and defeat Sephiroth." Rufus pointed at them questioningly. "Any ideas?"

"Gya hah hah hah!" Heidegger, the head of the Public Safety Department chortled. "We've already solved the first problem! Meteor will soon be smashed to bits!" He declared with a fist on the immaculately clean table. "The plan has already been put in motion. Namely, to collect Huge Materia from each region."

"Well..." Before Rufus could express his obvious doubts, Scarlet who had been leaning against the wall from the beginning of the conference, walked towards Rufus.

"Huge Materia is a high density special type of Materia made through a special compression process in Mako reactors." She explained, barely concealing her own excitement. Stretching out her arms, she said, "The energy extracted from it is 330 times the strength of normal Materia." She laughed. "How about that!?" Turning to the rest of the room, she continued. "We will gather all the Huge Materia together and ram it into Meteor."

Reeve shifted uncomfortably. The plan was perfect... too perfect. There must be something... some loophole or an issue that they have overlooked.

Scarlet looked at Rufus again. "That will cause a huge explosion! Reducing Meteor literally to bits."

"You're going to ram into Meteor?" Asked Rufus. There was no mistaking the slight hint of skepticism and a bit of curiosity in his tone. "Do you think we have the technology to do it?"

"Don't worry about that! More importantly, we've got to collect Huge Materia from each area."

Heidegger took that as his cue. "We've already collected the Materia from Nibelheim. All that's left is Corel and Fort Condor. I've already dispatched troops to Corel." With that, he laughed again.

From his earpiece, Reeve heard the AVALANCHE talking again. They seemed to have heard enough. So he allowed Cait Sith to take over while he continued the boring meeting. Cait Sith would contact him later to discuss about AVALANCHE's plan.

Alana stopped and looked at the debris lying around the ruins of Sector 6. What started out as a simple evening walk turned out to be much further than that.

I should probably head home and check on Elena again. She thought. It has been two weeks since Elena came home from her mission with Tseng to the Temple of the Ancients. Not that Elena told her; she got the information second-hand from KK. Elena had been in bad shape since Tseng was declared missing in action.

Alana wondered to herself how she got to Sector 6 from her house. She was just thinking about the predicament about Meteor…

She looked up. The meteor loomed sinisterly above their heads. Any day now… She thought. Everyone had no idea when the meteor will fall, but nobody was taking any chances. Across the globe, the people panicked. Delirious evangelists moved from door to door proclaiming the day of the apocalypse, people were murmuring their dissent at Shinra, businesses were closing to help tide over the crisis, if it could be tided over at all… It seemed to Alana that no one was interested to fight the Meteor, sans Shinra and the exiled Turks. Maybe it was because they were expecting Shinra to make a move. Maybe they gave up any hope of being saved at all.

While thinking of all these things and their implications on battling against Meteor, Alana ended up at the ruins of Sector 6. The building that she was looking at was destroyed to the ground, but she could still recognise one of the sheds at the back of the field. It was training dojo for students specialising in martial arts. Yes, this was the Shinra Military School. After the destruction of Zirconiade, the entire Sector 6 was completely obliterated. However, Shinra made no attempts to rebuild the school, resulting in the retrenchment of many professors and instructors, her father included. Her father declared himself retired ever since.

Since Zirconiade, the Turks left Shinra to find their own lives. Although everyone felt liberated, Alana felt insecure. For the last 11 years, she knew her directions, goals and objectives in every waking moment of her life. Now, with a scattered group of former colleagues working on their own agendas, Alana knew not who to turn to. Veld would have been her top choice, just that he seemed more than happy to stay in the shadows.

Alana could not bear to be in the in-betweens. Everything to her should be in black-and-white. She hated to be where she was right now – everywhere but nowhere.

In limbo.

She hated the feeling of aimlessness. She first felt it when she was twelve, looking at a lowering casket containing her mother. Alana swore never to let herself go back there again.

I must be strong.

Alana had to be. She has not cried in front of anyone since the death of her mother. When she saw her taciturn father crumble and little Elena crying for their mother, Alana knew that she had to be strong. If she stumbled too, who would support the family?

I have to support the family.

After her basic education in the public school, she enrolled herself into the Shinra Military School. If her father was surprised to see her, he did not show it. He handpicked her under his tutelage, but he was never biased towards her. He was fair to all his students, and expected them all to have efficiency and a sharp acumen. He was a strong believer of tactile learning and made Alana learn everything the hard way.

I must persevere.

Alana smiled to herself as she thought of those days. Intensive jogging exercises, rain or shine. Combat exercises and shooting assessments were normal components in her school life. Academic lessons on Mathematics and Science, strategically placed in the afternoon such that it was a Herculean task not to doze off in class. Boys that would rather check out their female classmates than to work on their skills.

It's no wonder that defeating them was so easy.

There were a few female students, but Alana did not mind. Boys were more direct in their issues and less sensitive to Alana's feelings, but they attain their achievements through hard work, not gossiping and backstabbing. Many of her male friends ended up in Shinra as SOLDIER or Shinra Infantry. Some of her female classmates who were cleverer got jobs in Shinra as research staff. They still could meet up in the staff canteen once in a while to catch up…

I was unable to bear my sorrow, but they helped me.

Indeed, Shinra Military School had been the best channel for her to let loose. Alana learnt many things – combat, sharpshooting, independence, camaraderie and loyalty… The school had been the place of her training. It was also her method of dealing with the sorrow. From day one, Alana made the decision to redirect her sorrow on her training. Naturally, her perfectionist quality gave herself no room for laziness or excuses. If not for her classmates, she would have gone through three years knowing what she did, not who she was.

Thanks to them, I could pick myself up again and move on.

Three years she dedicated herself in the school, earning medals, badges and all sorts of accolades. What made her most well-known in the history of the school was the mutual acknowledgement that she had surpassed her instructor – her father. It was no surprise to see Alana graduate from the school as valedictorian.

Suddenly, she jerked out of her memories. There was a sinking feeling in her stomach as she realised exactly what her restlessness was all about.

Alana felt helpless.

That was it. Since joining the Turks, Alana could barely count the number of times she felt helpless. Being a Turk gave her confidence; it empowered her. She knew what she needed to do, and what to do next.

Now… Meteor is coming. Everyone is dreading for the last day of their lives. Yet, there was nothing she could do. That was the part she hated most. She felt insecure in her lack of knowledge… Perhaps that was why she fought so hard to know everything in school.

To top it off, the exiled Turks were scattered and half of them seemed uninterested about the fate of the Planet. Alana clenched her fists, disgusted by their lack of conviction. But no, she will not give up on anything yet. Who knows how much longer before the gigantic ball of fire hits their homes? One thing is for sure, she is not going to go home and twiddle her thumbs like everyone else. She will persevere, fight if she has to.

I won't give up. She thought, turning around to return home. Even if Elena is crying her eyes out every night over Tseng, and Shinra is doing close to nothing effective, and Meia's espionage to Nibelheim pushed us into danger, and everyone else has resigned to their fate…

I won't give up.

7 January 0008

After so many tries, Meia had long given up trying to like the taste of coffee. No amount of cream and sugar can give her the same satisfaction like chocolate milk, at least that was what she thought. So she was grateful that Cassie remembered her when she did her groceries. Meia giggled. The thought of a trained assassin pushing a cart and comparing milk expiry dates was not a sight to get used to.

The lobby in the Shinra Building greeted Meia as usual in the morning. She dumped her empty milk carton swiftly into the bin, clocked in her card and walked towards the lift. She was humming some random song that she heard a few days ago when suddenly, a presence loomed behind her. It was Kunsel.

To her surprise, her tense shoulders relaxed and she almost gave an audible sigh of relief. Inwardly, Meia chided herself for being paranoid. A few days had passed since her return. There had been no signs of anyone coming to 'arrest' her for her transgressions, but that did not mean that Meia no longer felt the jitters. "Hello, Mr. Kunsel." She smiled.

In the months that she was 'Matilda', she talked to Kunsel too, perhaps more than with Reno. Kunsel seemed different with 'Matilda', even though they were the same person. Meia still found Kunsel a great conversationalist, but it was clear that Kunsel was withholding himself more with 'Matilda'. Meia thought about her past with Kunsel, when she was Meia. It did not take long for Kunsel to warm up to Meia and talk to her about many things. Perhaps he warmed up with Meia only.

Kunsel nodded at Meia with a tight smile, while his fellow SOLDIER whispered in his ear. Meia recognised him as Fred, the Gongagan SOLDIER who sparred with Kunsel a few weeks ago. Meia thought nothing about it, because the elevator signalled that it was on the first floor.

They entered the lift, Meia first and the two SOLDIERs following behind. Before she could reach for the button, Fred grabbed her into a tight arm lock. Meia yelped at the sudden attack while Kunsel punched in the code that would bring the lift to the level without stopping. Meia glared at Kunsel. "What is the meaning of this, Kunsel?" She asked, momentarily forgetting to act like Matilda. She struggled against Fred, but he was simply too strong. She slumped against Fred, rebelliously trying to make herself heavier.

"I'm sorry, miss," said Kunsel grimly. "But I need you to come with me."

Meia's pulse pounded in her head. "Where to?" She asked softly.

To that, Kunsel offered no answer.

Oh my gosh, this chapter took me essentially a month to finish. I've written some more notes and review responses in my blog, so swing by, will you?

Dum, dum, dum! What is going to happen to Meia? Stay tuned for the new chapter!

And finally, I'll respond to this review by Cocofury. First of all, thank you for that 2 cents' worth! I've read your review in detail and here is my (vague) response. I will clarify by saying that in the first place, Haato was not sincere at all. He couldn't be bothered less with the opinion of others. So most of them actually feel that way. You realize that the only one who had a problem with this conflicting nature is Meia.

There are many more things that I would love to explain, but I can't. The subject of moral ambiguity has been mentioned many times by my lovely readers, so yes, I am aware. But it is thanks to you that I've finally found a way to address this issue through the story, so believe it or not, your review inspired me to link my discrepancies in a believable way. Also, some things that you've mentioned are closer to the truth than you think. Thank you for giving me feedback in such a nice and non-hurting way. I will continue to work hard!