The blood-red fabric had become a warning signal. My whole body tensed up as soon as the elevator doors slid open to reveal a scarlet dress, worn by the woman with the same name. She only gave me a cursory glance as she stepped in, but once the elevator was moving again, Scarlet leveled her full attention on me with the intensity of a hungry predator stalking its prey.
"Well, well," she purred. "Imagine running into you again. I was just thinking about you."
I glanced sideways at my escort. A minute ago, Reno had cracked jokes and laughed. Now, he remained still beside me, slouching against the wall of the elevator as if the world held nothing of interest for him.
Reeve's workshop was only a few floors away. Maybe ignoring the woman was the best strategy.
"What, not even a hello?" she mocked. "Don't they have manners wherever it is that you come from?"
Leave the talking to him, the Turk had said, but he didn't seem at all inclined to handle his part of the agreement. For some reason, Reno had decided to leave me to my own devices.
"Can I help you?" I asked as evenly as I could manage, sticking to the role of an executive's assistant.
"You can say yes, darling. I'm offering a much better deal than Tuesti, wouldn't you agree?"
"No thanks."
Scarlet's smirk oozed malevolent satisfaction. I got the sinking feeling that was the answer she had hoped for.
"What a shame," she crooned. "Seems I have to find another use for you then."
The blonde tapped a finger against her chin as she looked me over, making a show of evaluating me like a piece of meat. My skin crawled under her gaze and I struggled to keep my hands by my sides. Reno still hadn't said anything. Why wouldn't he say anything?
"You know, Hojo has returned to the fold. Full of renewed zeal, ready to take on new projects. I bet he would be very interested to hear about an undercover alien in our midst."
My heart skipped a beat, then burst into a furious pace that drained the blood from my face. My gaze darted to the redhead, but his expression hadn't changed. With growing uncertainty and apprehension, I stared at his impassive form. Hadn't he heard what she said?
"If you think your pet Turk will help you, think again." Her upper lip curled slightly as her lingering eyes wandered over him. "He's just herding you around HQ on an executive's beck and call. Should I tell him to take you to the old creep instead of Tuesti... Well, I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem. Would it, Turk?"
"Nope."
His tone was bored, his manner indifferent. Every inch a Turk, devoid of feeling and attachments. I tried to tell myself it was an act, but the gut-wrenching fear of betrayal was overriding all common sense. Out of sight, out of mind, it cried. He'll never lay eyes on you again once you're locked up in Hojo's lab.
"In fact, why don't we do so right away? Turk, take her to Hojo."
My head spun her way as Scarlet voiced her command, then back again in time to see Reno nod and pull out his keycard. My mouth opened, but failed to produce the deafening "No!" that tore through my mind. I watched with openmouthed disbelief as he leaned forward to swipe the card, then hit a button on the control panel with a lazy swat.
Number sixty-seven lit up. For a second, the smell of antiseptic returned to me as clear as if my nose had just picked up on it. I felt ill.
"See? Even Reno has learned that Shinra has no use for insubordinate Turks."
My eyes flickered between the man's face and the floor indicator, increasing at a steady, merciless pace. He refused to even look at me. Staring straight ahead with distant eyes, his face revealed no emotion. Stabbed in the back again, shrieked the fear, acrid and bitter like the bile rising in my throat. You gullible fool!
My chest had constricted to the point of making every breath a labored gasp. It was only a matter of time before my knees would give out. Think. Think! I tried, but the walls were closing in, squeezing the air out of my lungs and the thoughts out of my head. I saw Hojo's face, his assistants' faces, hovering before my eyes between blinding flashes of white light.
The elevator came to a halt on floor sixty-two, Scarlet's destination. The mundane dinging sound announcing the stop drew me back to reality, or at least close enough to become dimly aware of the female executive staring at me with a wicked grin, feeding on my panic like a vampire.
"Ah, but Hojo and I must finalize our agreement before I deliver the prize," she declared as an afterthought as the doors opened. "Never mind, then. Turk, you may take her to wherever you were supposed to in the first place."
"Whatever," Reno said with a shrug.
With one last sneer in my direction, she swanned out of the elevator.
I pressed my eyes shut as I collapsed backwards, trying to shrink into the corner, but jumped when a loud bang echoed in the enclosed space of the elevator, followed by an angry shout.
"The fuckin' bitch!"
My eyes flew open to see Reno by the control panel, leaning against the wall with his hands flat against the wall, his shoulders so tense they were shaking. The man kicked the wall a second time, hard enough to make the panels vibrate, and I couldn't help but flinch again. This time, he noticed; the next second I felt his hands cup my face while he spoke urgently, heatedly.
"It was all show, ya hear me? Don't believe it, don't believe any of it!"
His eyes were wide and startled, gazing at my face with bare concern, but he was too close, too intense, too much, too much!
I jerked my head away and pushed past him, fleeing to the opposite corner of the elevator where I wedged myself between the intersecting walls, slumping my forehead against the arm I had propped up to support myself.
"FitzEvan, I–"
He had taken a step toward me, but stopped when I held up my hand.
"Just... Just give me a minute."
It was barely a whisper, but Reno heard me. He hesitated, then sighed.
"Yeah. Sure."
I placed the arm beneath the other one under my head. The thin fabric of my shirt did little to shield me from the coolness of the metal touching my forearms and I focused on the sensation, using it to keep myself anchored in the present while one nightmarish memory after another swept over me. When that proved insufficient, I dug my fingernails deep into the palms of my hands and fixated on the pain instead.
The Turk stayed in place, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, his hands never staying still for more than a few seconds at a time. At first my panting was the only sound filling the elevator, but once my breathing had eased into a less panicked rate, Reno spoke up again.
"Scarlet fuckin' hates my guts. She hates the fact that she can't touch me or any of the other Turks right now and she'd be more than happy to take it out on you. This? This was just her fucked-up idea of fun. If I'd done anythin' to piss her off..."
The words tumbled out in an unsteady stream that was at odds with the cool and nonchalant Reno I knew. The man actually sounded shaken up.
"I was just playin' along 'til I could figure somethin' out. I wasn't gonna leave you with Hojo. I wouldn't do that to ya, all right?"
It wasn't pleading, but it came surprisingly close. I straightened up with careful moves, then gave him a nod as acknowledgement. While uncertain of the stability of my legs, I was sure my voice wasn't ready to hold yet. Even if it had been, it was better to hold my tongue. The words that raged in my head and wanted to pour out of my mouth weren't pretty.
Reno stared at the floor for a few moments, hands on his hips, then stepped over to the control panel to release the halted elevator.
"Let's talk to Reeve," he said, selecting the workshop floor. "We'll work this out together."
Ten minutes later I sat in Reeve's workshop, bundled up in his suit jacket, while the Turk described what had happened. The account was saturated with venom and foul language as Reno vented everything he had kept inside in Scarlet's presence, but I didn't mind. If anything, I cherished it as proof that he was unwilling to follow her orders and hand me over.
Maybe James had been just as unwilling, a small inner voice noted. That didn't stop him from destroying your life. I silenced the voice, but the warning lingered, with all its unpleasant implications.
Reno reached the end of his report.
"Scarlet's gone too far. We gotta figure out her angle, yo."
"Agreed." Deep twin creases had formed between Reeve's eyebrows. "Any thoughts?"
The redhead had calmed down, but judging by the way he scowled at his scuffed boots, he was still vexed by the event.
"I figured the fib 'bout the Prez would keep her off our backs a while longer, so could be it was just bad luck. Wrong place, wrong time kinda thing, givin' her the perfect chance to fuck with us both. The lil' dance she made us do might've been payback if she suspected I was bullshittin' 'bout the Prez last time."
"It's possible. Scarlet does enjoy her spite."
Reno scoffed in agreement, then continued on a more thoughtful note.
"Mind you, could also be that it's all to take you outta the game, since she tried to get the Doc here to spy on ya again. Y'know, messin' up your people since she can't go after ya directly."
Reeve's frown deepened.
"That seems rather drastic."
"Maybe you've just been too much of a pain in her ass in the boardroom ." A brief pause. "Well, y'know, not literally. I hope."
"Yes, okay, thank you for that clarification, Reno," Reeve interjected with a long-suffering sigh.
The Turk flashed an impish grin, but took the hint and moved onward.
"Somethin' 'bout this don't smell right, tho'."
"Oh?"
"She talked 'bout some deal with Dr. Freaky, but I ain't buyin' it," Reno said after a short pause. "She ain't gonna let somethin' like that slip by accident. I'm thinkin' maybe Superbitch wants us to be too busy watchin' out for Hojo to notice what she's really up to."
"A diversion, you mean?"
"Yeah. A pretty clumsy one, but this is Scarlet we're talkin' 'bout. She's a frickin' genius when it comes to blowin' shit up in awesome ways, but she ain't exactly subtle, yo."
The executive rubbed his chin as he considered the suggestion.
"You might be on to something."
Whether Reno was or not, the conversation had made one thing painfully clear: I was just convenient bait, a pawn to be sacrificed in some play for power that had nothing whatsoever to do with me. I was beginning to hate this planet.
The boys carried on with their speculation, unaware of the dark cloud forming over my head.
"The part 'bout a deal might be true, tho', but if it ain't Hojo..."
"...the likeliest candidate is Heidegger."
Reno grimaced, sticking out his tongue in distaste.
"Eugh. Match made in hell. Ain't gonna be easy to prove anythin', since those two hook up all the time for legit department business. Guess I gotta dig deeper, yo."
"You do that. We'll be here."
The Turk nodded and made for the exit, but halted when I shot to my feet.
"That's it, is it?" I snapped. "Just continue as before, acting like nothing happened? Again? It might just be me, since, you know, I'm the one about to end up as a bloody guinea pig, but I don't think that plan is working out so well!"
"Tess, we need to know more first," Reeve urged. "Please, be patient."
"Patient? After threats like that?!"
"Hojo won't hurt ya again, Doc. Not if I can help it."
The redhead spoke quietly, but there was nothing weak about the resolve his tone conveyed. If only I could have allowed it to lull me into a sense of security, but the anxiety had grown too strong to be overthrown by well-intentioned words alone.
"How can you stop him? I'm nobody on this world. He's an executive. All he has to do is say the word!"
Reno sighed and looked away, but I didn't miss the glance he exchanged with Reeve first. There was determination in his eyes, not resignation. I studied his face while I made an attempt to follow the peculiar logic the Turk had demonstrated on more than one occasion. He couldn't go after the executives, that much I knew, so to guarantee my safety he might–
No, wait. Not safety. To guarantee Hojo wouldn't hurt me, he had said.
"You'll kill me? Is that it?"
It was both a question and a stunned conclusion. Reno didn't look taken aback. Not even the briefest look of surprise touched his features.
"Doc, it ain't like–"
"I'm right, aren't I?" I whispered, feeling a chill along my spine. "You'll kill me."
Reno set his jaw, then held my eyes with a steady gaze as he responded.
"If it comes to that, you'll never know what hit ya."
Silence descended for several seconds, before it was shattered by my shrill laughter.
"How did I end up here?" I asked of no one in particular, raking both hands through my hair. "How did I end up on this crazy planet where even my so-called friends are planning to kill me?"
"FitzEvan, that ain't what I–"
"Why don't you just do it now, huh? Saves you trouble in the long run, doesn't it!"
In the blink of an eye, Reno was towering over me, trembling with barely contained emotion.
"Don't even joke about it," he growled, pinning me in place with an anger the man had never directed at me before. His eyes bored into me for another breathless second, and then he was gone.
The workshop door slammed shut, jolting my lungs back into life in the process. While I sucked in several gasps of air and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened, Reeve cleared his throat.
"He could have lied, you know."
Of course he could have. It would have been easy, too; just a little white lie to put me at ease, one that I would have preferred to believe.
"Maybe he should have," I snapped.
"Do you really think that?"
I dropped back into the chair and glared at my knees.
"Turks don't tend to believe in happy endings," the executive continued after a while. "Reno thinks the best he can offer is a quick, painless one."
Inexplicably, the tug in my heart was not fear or distaste, but sadness. Unsure of what to make of it, I just shook my head with a dark chuckle.
"Fantastic. Now I have to look over both my shoulders, huh?"
"It's not like that," Reeve sighed, rubbing his eyes. "Believe it or not, he means well. He's just..."
He trailed off. I released a long, slow breath, then gave a tired nod.
"A Turk," I finished for him. "For better or worse."
I should have been appalled, and I was, but... At the same time, a part of me felt relief. Hojo's lab, with its manmade monstrosities trapped in liquid-filled vats, had proven that there were worse fates than death.
Christ, what a thing to be grateful for. I had spent too long on this absurd, twisted world.
"Why didn't you tell me he was back?"
I didn't have to explain who I was talking about.
"We didn't want you to worry. "
I made little effort to hold back the hollow laughter.
"What else are you hiding from me so I won't 'worry'? The fact that I'm never going to see the outside of this damn tower?"
Reeve didn't reply right away. He sat down in the other chair beside me and leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs with his hands locked together.
"Tess, I know you want out of here, but we need to be smart about it. You're locked up behind a wall of bureaucracy. If we break you out, it will just give Shinra a reason to come after you. Heidegger and Scarlet are watching the Turks like hawks, waiting for any excuse to take them down, and right now they hold more sway with the President than I do. We have to be careful."
"Maybe I would have been better off with those two," I muttered bitterly, letting the frustration get the better of me.
My words hung heavy in the uncomfortable silence that followed, but it was too late to unsay them. I watched my fingers fidget with a button on Reeve's navy blue blazer until its owner spoke up.
"You tell me. Who do you think put you in the interrogation room in the first place?"
His retort was matter-of-fact, but embarrassed heat flooded my cheeks nonetheless. I really needed to shut my mouth before my petulant outbursts drove off my second ally as well.
"Look, maybe it's be best if we postpone today's work and–"
"No, let's get started," I interrupted. "Please. I need something to take my mind off sadistic maniacs and mad scientists."
Not to mention bewildering redheads. I didn't know what to think of Reno's behavior and thought processes. How I felt about them was even more difficult to figure out.
Reeve examined me for a moment, then nodded.
"As you wish. I have boosted the output of the power-assisted systems and I'm curious to see how it affects your movement."
Perfect. I couldn't wait to get into my suit, to feel the comforting bulk and weight surround me, followed by the surge of strength as the systems kicked in. Sparky might not have been able to stop bullets and blades, but while I was inside it I could at least pretend I stood a chance.
As I strapped on the armored pieces, I gave the idea of escaping proper consideration for the first time in weeks. My hazard suit was almost fully restored, with several new tweaks and features. If today's tests were successful, Sparky would make me stronger than ever. If I wanted to, I could knock Reeve out and steal his keycard.
I could... but I knew that I wouldn't. I couldn't bring myself to hurt the man.
Something occurred to me as I watched the fingers of my gloved hand flex. Reno and Reeve must have considered the possibility, too. There might be a kill switch. In fact, there had to be a kill switch. How else would they dare let me wear the suit so freely? I knew it had a tracking signal – James had put one in for emergencies – Reeve could have found it or added one of his own. My hope plummeted as I realized that if I wanted to run, it would have to be without the hazard suit.
My hand balled into a fist as I swallowed against the sudden lump in my throat. I was so, so tired of feeling powerless.
A couple of hours later Reeve began fixing the issues we had discovered during testing, so I distracted myself with one of the reports he had brought me. A frown soon formed on my brow.
"Reeve?"
"Hm?" he acknowledged without looking up from the piece of Sparky's leg in front of him.
"I don't understand why the Science Department is hiding their research. Wouldn't it help the poisoned victims if they published what they know about Mako?"
"It would, but it would also endanger classified company secrets."
I gave him a long, thoughtful look. The dangers of Mako exposure were public knowledge as far as I knew, so it couldn't be about keeping accidents under wraps. The substance itself was a natural resource, so preserving the secret makeup of a designed product wasn't the reason either.
"I get the feeling this isn't about energy production anymore."
His lips pulled into a thin smile.
"You're right."
"So, Mako isn't just fuel? What is it, exactly?"
I received a quick glance before the reply.
"Good question, but not one that's easy to answer. Some say Mako is the essence of all life on Gaia, the Lifestream itself. They claim the reactors are draining the Planet of its lifeblood, slowly weakening it and destroying all life."
I blinked twice, taken by complete surprise.
"The what now? Life stream?"
"The life-force that we are born of and to which we return after death," he explained, swiveling in his chair to face me. "The spirit energy that fuels life itself on our world."
"Spirit energy," I repeated slowly with a dubious look at the man. It sounded like the sort of joke Reno might try to pull on me with a straight face, but I hadn't expected it from Reeve.
"So they say."
His smiling face looked too sincere for a prank. Maybe he was serious. This was, after all, a world that made regular use of magic.
Oh, of course. Materia was made from Mako, wasn't it? That fact kept slipping my mind. I wasn't used to taking magical properties into account.
Different planet, different rules. Open mind, Tess.
"Uh, okay. How's it supposed to cause the problems?"
"In short, the reactors consume Mako from the surrounding environment, leaving it lifeless. Hence the dead zone around Midgar. The refined, concentrated form is highly reactive biologically and leaks may twist animals into mutated monsters. People, too, and plants. All forms of life are affected."
"Like your reactor staff," I mumbled, mentally poring over the reports I had read for details that could confirm or deny his claims.
"Yes. Then there's the Mako-exposed SOLDIERs with superhuman abilities, such as enhanced strength and accelerated healing rate. I'm not a doctor or a biologist, but it seems to me that mutation alone can't explain the effects."
My eyes widened.
"Hang on, you expose people on purpose? Knowing what it can do?"
"The board has decided that the benefits outweigh the risks. So, if you see someone with glowing blue eyes, that's what it's about."
The dry tone held a hint of sardonic humor, but the man didn't sound like he was joking.
"Glowing blue–" I cut myself off with a disbelieving snort. "You know, you really are quite insane on this world."
Reeve smirked.
"If it makes you feel any better, there are many who would agree with you."
"How does that even work? Do you tell SOLDIER wannabes to go take a bath in the nearest reactor?"
That earned me a small chuckle.
"It's done with series of injections, but that's about all I know. The Science Department is notoriously unwilling to reveal its secrets."
In a flash, the grotesque forms I had seen in Hojo's lab paraded before my eyes. Unfortunate victims of accidents or SOLDIER experiments gone wrong? I tried to swallow down the queasy feeling.
"Did you know that SOLDIERs quite literally disappear upon death? Their bodies disperse into pure energy that returns to the Planet."
I didn't even try to come up with a response anymore. My incredulity had reached its limits.
"The theory could also explain the properties of materia and the link that allows us to call upon their powers," Reeve mused. "Your case makes a curious comparison."
"My resistance to magic, you mean?"
"Indeed. Raises some interesting questions, doesn't it?"
"I'm not the only one, am I?" I wondered, remembering Reno list several known examples of resistance in the conversation that followed his impromptu materia experiment on me.
"No, but so far you've been immune to everything that's been tried on you. That's unusual in a human."
"It's only been three or four spells," I pointed out. "Hardly an exhaustive list."
"True. It would be interesting to know how far your resistance extends."
The words stirred the fresh fears that still lingered from the morning. I lowered my eyes to the report in my hands. This was getting much too close to discussing my use as a lab rat.
Reeve cleared his throat.
"Anyway, does that answer your question?"
"It raised more than it answered," I sighed, then offered a wry smile. "That's usually the way it goes, though."
"All right," he chuckled and returned to his work. "Let me know if there's anything else you want to know. If you've got questions about materia, though, you should ask Reno. He knows more about that than I do."
My smile faded as I wondered if the redhead would come back at all. He had been so upset. Why did this have to happen when we had only just cleared the air?
My fears turned out to be unfounded. Reno returned before the session was at an end, strolling into the workshop as if he had only gone out for a quick smoking break. I had worried he would be cold and distant again, but he seemed much his normal self. Perhaps the grins didn't quite reach his eyes, but at least he made the effort. I did my best to return the favor. The incident in the elevator had been unpleasant, but it hadn't been the Turk's fault. I shouldn't have taken it out on him.
Once he had escorted me back to my room, Reno paused by the doorway and took my wrist just as I was about to head inside. I stiffened and gave him a puzzled look, but the man didn't let go. Instead he turned my palm upward and placed a key on it, then closed my fingers around the item.
"For the room at the end of the hallway," he explained in a low voice. "Thought ya might sleep better if you can at least lock the door 'til we can figure out somethin' else."
His hands were warm on mine, but the concern in his eyes made my cheeks burn hotter.
"Keep it and yourself outta sight," he instructed. "Best if no one knows 'bout your lil' hidey-hole, yo."
The heat wandered down and blanketed my heart in a soothing warmth, but I wrangled my emotions under control before it could go any further. Blushing like a schoolgirl? Flustered by the act of holding hands? Sheesh, the stress of the day must have done a real number on my emotional state. I took a deep breath to collect myself, then smiled at him.
"Thank you."
The redhead responded with a crooked smile of his own and released my hand.
"Reno?"
He had already turned to leave, but looked back with his eyebrows raised when I called his name.
"About today... You know, after..." I huffed in exasperation when the right words failed to appear, but tried again. "When you... I mean, when we..."
The man tilted his head to the side, a confused frown knitting his brow while amusement tugged on one corner of his mouth.
"You plannin' to make sense any time soon, Fitz?"
"Oh, you– I'm trying to say I'm sorry, all right?"
A look of surprise passed over his face and I could have sworn his cheeks shifted a shade toward pink, but he recovered quickly.
"First hugs and now apologies? You goin' soft on me, babe?"
"What? I'm just–"
"'Cause, y'know, if it's gonna be kisses next, I'm totally okay with skippin' ahead."
"Reno!" I groaned. "I'm being serious here."
"Who says I ain't?" he drawled with a grin that completely contradicted his words.
"For the love of– I'm trying to say sorry for yelling at you like that! I was just so upset about... You know. Her."
It started out as a frustrated reproach, but ended up as a rather awkward mumble when I realized I had come close to yelling out my apology for yelling.
Reno reached up to rub the back of his neck as the grin waned. This time, I definitely detected a rosy tinge beneath the red crescents.
"Shit, don't worry 'bout somethin' like that. I get yelled at all the time, yo."
He said it as if it was true. Perhaps it was. Suddenly, I felt even worse.
"That doesn't mean it's okay."
As his lips curved upwards again I caught sight of a small, genuine smile before it transformed into the trademark smirk; just a fleeting glimpse, but that was enough to bring the heat right back to my cheeks.
"Eh, I'm a Turk. What do I care 'bout what's okay and what ain't? Now quit bein' so damn sweet. You're gonna make my teeth melt."
"Fine, have it your way," I relented with a roll of the eyes, but a smile softened my expression.
Reno grinned and made to leave, only to pause again before he had taken the first step.
"Hey, Fitz," he said after a moment's hesitation. "I got your back, all right? Remember that."
The man could have been lying, of course. Just a little white lie to put me at ease. It would have been safer to assume that was the case and remain on guard against betrayal; yet as I watched him saunter toward the exit, a key in my hand and the memory of a rare smile in my mind's eye, I found myself dangerously reluctant to do so.