Natalie slid down the pipe towards Mako storage. She wondered how ShinRa would respond to another Reactor being taken out of commission. And if anyone would recognize her. She felt like a fool for coming back, for letting herself be seen.
But she was in it now. The Reactor in front of her was her 'Today' problem. And ShinRa, spotting her or not, was a 'tomorrow problem', a problem for later.
They passed a giant combat robot. It was hooked up and looked incomplete.
While Tifa and Barret planned to run from something like that. Cloud merely regarded the thing.
"What do we make now when you put us together with these summons? Seven or eight against one?" Natalie asked, she knew that neither Barret or Tifa had any summon Materia squared away for themselves.
The four of them had pooled their Materia some, especially when Natalie had come back from her trip with extra. But she had only the precious few summons herself, Shiva's sphere she would give up for no one, and she was the only one versed in Materia-use well enough to even use Leviathan.
Barret looked at the giant robot. "You foolish enough to think we could take that thing?" Barret asked with disbelief.
"I'd rather live than let that kill me." Natalie said.
"Then run." Cloud reminded her.
"You can't run from every problem." She told Cloud.
When they got closer to Mako storage, Tifa spoke up. "Smells like the last time."
Natalie was reminded of her Mako shower from SOLDIER, from years ago. And ShinRa was behind either of them associating bad memories with the smell of the Mako.
"Fuck ShinRa." Natalie said. "Pretty soon no one will ever smell this again."
"Yeah!" Barret said.
Only several feet over the liquid Mako. Natalie saw Cloud have an episode of something. Where the Mako smell was strongest.
"Hey SOLDIER boy." Barret asked a doubled over Cloud.
Natalie held the rail, squeezing it tight as she her head started to pound from the Mako.
"Cloud!" Tifa spoke with concern.
"What?" Barret asked.
Cloud only shook his head.
Natalie wondered what that was about. But if he wasn't going to answer Tifa, Natalie would have just been brushed off as well.
"Let's go." Natalie stepped after Tifa and Barret, leaving Cloud behind her.
While Cloud set up the bomb, Cloud questioned Barret's explanation of 'Safe distance.'
Natalie had heard about the last time from Jessie. How the reactor had gone off larger than anyone had expected or planned for. Jessie had just wanted to disable the plant, not make it explode. Natalie spoke up about Reactor One's explosion. "The last one woke me up. 'Safe distance'. Sure."
When they got back to the ladder out of Mako storage. They watched the ladder pull up and away from them. The ladder they had used to come in.
"Hey!" Barret said.
"Fucking perfect." Natalie said. She scanned the ceiling and door. Looking for the next problem.
"Yeah, weirdly perfect timing." Cloud said sarcastically.
"That can't be a coincidence." Tifa wailed.
"No such thing as coincidences." Natalie told her.
As they all looked around for trouble, making a circle with their backs facing. The elevator doors opened and more drones surrounding them. Starting the light show.
"Gya HA HA HA." a forty foot hologram of Heidegger appeared and Drones zeroed in on each of them.
'Here goes nothing.' Natalie thought. From behind her goggles, she watched the little round camera eyes on the drones watch them all. Whether or not Natalie was recognized, ShinRa would want all of them for what they were trying to do. For what they had already done.
Heidegger introduced himself and welcomed them into the plant. Another hologram appeared of the newscast going on right now with footage of Biggs, Wedge and Barret going under a fence, the voice over talking about the people responsible for the Reactor One explosion. It switched to an on site reporter in the Undercity of Sector Seven.
The whole thing looked hand curated and orchestrated to make AVALANCHE look the perfect villains, and the burble of the crowd in the news was showing only worry for the reactor that had now had a bomb in it. Finishing with promises that ShinRa would stop AVALANCHE and be the hero of the people.
The newscast disappeared as Heidegger's hologram continued to gloat about the show they were going to put on for the city. Dangling another hologram of the robot from earlier. Which Heidegger called the 'Airbuster.'
"The Big boy!" Barret said.
Heidegger's laughter was interrupted by one of his officers accidentally slipping onto the microphone that the Airbuster wasn't fully ready yet.
"Ha!" Natalie cheered. Raising her fist.
Heidigger turned off his hologram and got on the PA of the Reactor. To tell the humans that were definitely still staffing the building somewhere. To get to them.
"Time to fight our way out." Natalie had her sword out while everyone else was still looking for a way out.
Very quickly, combat was joined. "I hate these guys." Natalie said as they fought the shock troops. They had shocking gloves that armored their entire lower arm. They did not go down quickly.
Natalie smiled to herself as she heard Heidigger over the PA with the intercom button still on. He wanted them brought up for execution. But the Airbuster was still being prepared.
Barret had to convince Tifa that it wasn't too Late to fight ShinRa, even with the bullshit. Now he was all on board to fight the giant mech. Make ShinRa look bad when they didn't die.
"I'm sold." Cloud said.
"Sometimes the best way to avoid a trap." Natalie started as the elevator sat there, waiting for them. "Is to go right in and smash the damn thing."
Barret laughed at her joke. Looking forward to smashing the giant robot.
The supervisor over the PA was frantic, trying to get the machine ready. They just had to go room by room up and out through the remaining staff.
"Don't over do it." Cloud told them while they cleared the room.
Natalie kept her focus, it was possible to swing too hard and too far and over extend herself. She had learned long ago how to conserve her physical endurance that way, only swinging as much or as hard as was needed.
When they were done, they found the system that was being use to finalize the Airbuster.
"More fucking buttons and switches." Natalie cursed. "Do they need keycards too?" She asked as she joined them on the console Barret had found.
"It needs a keycard." Natalie said.
"How did you know, Lee?" Tifa asked Natalie.
"ShinRa loves keycards." Was all Natalie said.
Natalie rolled her eyes after they found all the keycards they could. There wasn't enough to re route every part in transit. So they had to pick and choose what about it would be less effective.
She looked at the key card she had found. 'The next reactor is like this and I'm going to scream.'
Cloud took charge on where and when they used the keycards they could find.
'Is this how Shawn felt?' She though of her old friends. 'When Shawn was the oldest, but Danny took charge?'
After the next room and more talk of surveillance. Barret cleared his throat and went into a speech about ShinRa.
Tifa cut him off, asking who he was talking to.
Barret bragged about being heard on TV.
"Thousand gil says they cut the sound." Cloud said.
"I'd take that bet, except I want to keep my money" Natalie told him. Holding out a fist for a bump.
Cloud only waved his hand and moved them on to the next room.
Natalie didn't let it bother her. She was in better spirits, she could feel it. Even as the place dragged on, clearing room by room. She was moving forward, not circling fans or sun lamps, or old worries.
"Oh hey, we're onto the red shoulders now." Natalie joked about the elite security guards now mixed in with the run of the mill infantry.
"What comes after that?" Barret asked.
"Whatever's in the next room." Cloud said.
Natalie smirked as she cut down another guard. Her jaw clenched as the last guy went down. She felt bothered by her mood going up and down and too much like Cloud.
Barret was laughing about messing up the whole execution ShinRa had planned for them. Tifa was smiling as well but evaded dancing with Barret.
"I don't dance." Cloud said.
Natalie only swept her hand to the hallway and looked at Barret. "Sir, the Airbuster awaits you on the dance floor."
"Ha Ha! you're sounding better." Barret told Natalie.
"We're moving onwards and upwards now." She told him. The hall to the next room was literally that, upward.
"Grenadiers again." Natalie commented as they engaged in the next room. And she entered the dance, of fighting and taking out ShinRa guards.
"Never enough keycards." Cloud said.
"We don't have time to find them all." Natalie told him. "Just keep moving."
Barret warned them they were on the last stretch out. Turning the corner, they found the big boy being prep for the big show. And a bunch of riot-trooper carriers.
"Ha. Only Four." Natalie said.
After that, it was just a matter of taking the ramps up near where they had slid down. The Airbuster slowly following them up on it's own track.
"Forward and Upwards," Natalie said to herself, aloud for the other's benefit.
Past an elevator, they found the storage for all the components they had rerouted.
"Oh look." Natalie saw the release switches for the door to storage.
"How does it work?" Tifa asked.
Cloud explained. There were four switches and four of them.
Natalie was frustrated by the keycards and switches, buttons and bureaucracy of the dammed company.
At least she had helped ShinRa bleed just that much more.
They turned the corner, Barret cheered them on.
Natalie saw the t-intersection gangway ahead. They had made it back to the entrance of the Reactor. Towards the center of the city, they could see HQ rise in the distance. She hadn't seen the Airbuster yet.
"Trouble?" Cloud asked her.
"It's close." She pointed ahead. "Only way is through."
At the head of the gangway, Natalie could hear something coming.
Tifa spotted the drones.
This time the President greet them as a giant holographic projection.
One of the drones scanned them each in turn. Natalie was still wearing her goggles, even at night.
The gangway outside the reactor was as well lit as daylight, even as the night sky was dark and starless.
"The eyes of one who has bathed in Mako. A SOLDIER." The president said after Cloud had been scanned.
'Notice Cloud, not me.' Natalie thought while she hoped her goggles would fuck with their face recognition tech. 'Whether they do or don't. There's no turning back now.'
"Ex-SOLDIER." Cloud told the hologram. At that point, they all had weapons ready.
Natalie wondered if the Turks were watching. If Tseng was watching. 'Too late for hiding now. If I had wanted a clean break, I should have stayed in Icicle Inn up north.' She wanted to be there right now, anywhere but in front of ShinRa cameras. Cameras she had avoided for years and was now standing in front of on purpose.
"Once a SOLDIER. Always a SOLDIER." The president went on about the advanced cellular degradation.
'Does he even know his own assets?' Natalie thought, 'Only the G-Series SOLDIERs degrade. I've been a SOLDIER for years.'
Cloud had a quiet gasp at the president's words. Natalie was thoughtful. Cloud was a younger SOLDIER than her and she would not degrade as far as she knew. But only time would tell, for either of them.
Barret shot down one of the drones. The giant hologram shut out and back on. Barret had it out with the President.
The president went on another monologue and thanked them for the increased fervor against Wutai before cutting out. Switching to Heidegger. And his stupid laugh.
Natalie was ready for the show to go on.
Heidegger showed them another show of their bomb being messed with, starting the timer already and cutting Tifa's remote trigger from working.
The Airbuster finally made it's appearance via helicopter.
Natalie found herself on Cloud's side, Barret and Tifa on the other. As Heidegger pronounced their deaths by execution via Airbuster.
"I'm sick of all of this!" Tifa shouted.
Cloud flinched, a million miles away, beside Natalie.
"Cloud, get your head in the game!" Barret shouted as the Airbuster powered on.
"Side by side." Natalie told Cloud as he snapped out of it.
"Cloud, are you all right?" Tifa asked from the other side of the giant robot.
"I'm fine!" As the Airbuster began attacking. "You guys good to go?"
"As good as I'll ever be!" Barret shouted.
"On you left." Natalie said from Cloud's left flank. As she gave herself room to pump a Thundaga spell into the bot.
It took eight slow minutes for them to go back and forth. Wear down the Airbuster and the gangway. And stay in the fight themselves.
"My turn." Natalie she summoned Shiva. She wished she had had Odin or Ramuh for the Airbuster, especially any electrical summons. But her favorite lady would have to do. And the summon only had one target to focus on.
As the Airbuster wore down and Natalie kept up her magic in support. She was filled with doubt. The fight was simple enough that as the Airbuster hovered along side the gangplank. Natalie moved to Barret and Tifa's side of the gangway. They were overdue to get more healing spells. It was another minute until the bot went down, blowing up and taking half the gangway with it.
"Cloud!" Tifa cried from their side.
He hung by one arm from the other side, dangling from the edge and over the long drop.
"Get Tifa out of here!" He yelled at Barret. "This ain't the end of the line for you or me."
Drones entered the remains of the area. Shooting at all of them.
Tifa wanted to try something, anything for Cloud. Barret picked her up to carry her to safety.
"Just stay alive!" Natalie shouted at Cloud as she went after Barret. Another explosion rocked the building.
Tifa kept reaching for Cloud. Natalie just followed Barret out of there. Looking back she watched Cloud drop into the darkness below, dropping out of sight.
Natalie reminded herself where they were, still in a battle zone. Unclipping the grappling hook from her waist. "Time to exit stage right." they made their way to the correct door out, down the pillar. Where they could escape, aided by the grappling hooks.
After hours of evading guards in a reactor on high alert Natalie started the climb down with Barret and Tifa. Lowering themselves with the wires built into the grappling guns. Looking back up the way they had come, she looked for people watching them.
"I will come back to you. Marin." Jamie told her. With the voice Natalie only heard in her head.
At the sound of her voice, Marin grabbed tighter on her grappling hook and started going back up again.
"Natalie!" Barret cried, he was going down as Natalie was going back up.
"What are you doing?" Tifa cried.
Marin, Natalie, didn't listen, she was looking up into Jamie's hand as her dead girlfriend pulled Natalie up. "No!" She started struggling. Trying to get out of her grip
"Darn thing is acting up. Natalie!" Barret called.
"Wait for me." Jamie told her as she let go of Natalie's hand. That it was worded like her own pleads for Jamie made it cut deeper.
She was falling, the grappling gun was above her. She kept reaching for it and it was getting smaller. She heard her name over and over again.
She started choking as she hung, her jacket was yanking up suddenly from the force of stopping.
"Natalie!" Tifa screamed close to her ear.
Natalie jolted, Tifa had her by the back of her jacket, Tifa's grappling gun was adjusting to the weight of both of them.
"I'm going to swing you over. I'm losing my grip." They both swing onto the edge of the building, still moving down.
"OK." Natalie's head was full of pain even as it started to clear. No Jamie, no more voices. The Slums were beneath them, lit by the pre-dawn sun. The light was peeking between the horizon and the bottom of the plate.
Barret made it to their level. "Natalie. You alright?"
She looked up, it was just a grappling hook stuck in standby. It was no longer Jamie's hand. 'Natalie. Natalie. Natalie.' She reminded herself. 'I'm going crazy. Still seeing my dead girlfriend. It's not only not stopping, it's getting worse. Affecting what I'm doing. Before I know it she'll be telling me what to do.'
"I got it." Barret was back down, he had managed to get the hook. "It seems to be working."
"Pass it back." Natalie called from the ledge.
"What if that happens again?" Barret was worried.
"They can't take the weight of two of us for long. Better just me than one of you too."
"Not you too!" Tifa cried out.
Natalie looked down, it was another thirty meters or so to the bottom. Even she couldn't make that without the grappling gun. "Throw it. I'll meet you down there."
Barret frowned, thinking a moment before lobbing the grappling gun Natalie's way.
She caught the grappling gun easily. Though Barret and Tifa did wait for her to start lowering herself again on the wire before they all went down to the ground.
"I didn't pay for no faulty equipment." Barret grumbled.
Natalie didn't know what to say. Meanwhile she clung to reality as she could, counting her breaths in the way she had taught herself years ago.
There were no more issues heading the rest of the way down.
Natalie was back into her dark and distracted mood. She was relieved that Jamie wasn't a constant presence. She had agency over her body. So far.
'I was holding onto the gun. But her hand was squeezing mine. It's not real, it's not real. It's all in my head.'
When they got to the bottom. Barret had the gun and was flicking through the controls. Unsatisfied, he put the issue aside.
She could tell that he was going to have words with someone.
"Are you alright?" Tifa asked her.
"I will be." 'Maybe when this is all over.'
"Time to split up, we've been on every screen in this damn city. Let's make it back in one piece." Barret warned them.
Natalie was in her dark place, Tifa said something about Cloud.
"He'll be all right." Barret patted Tifa reassuringly. Then they were off to meet at a certain gate on the edge of Sector six. Sector five was awake with people fretting about the latest explosion. But the rubble between them and Sector Seven was full of monsters. That was no place to travel through alone. Unless you were Natalie.
Natalie knew much of the Slums now. They hadn't revealed all their secrets to her. But she could make it back to her place. She discarded her, latest, red scarf. She never planned on wearing it anytime soon. Pulling out a black and white checkered one. And shoved her goggles in a pocket.
With her hood up, she was just another lonely traveler late at night. 'A wandering soul knows know rest.' She quoted to herself. Before going back out into the local neighborhood of Sector Seven at night.
"Hmm." Barret took in Natalie with her hood up. "Where's your scarf?"
She kept her hood up. "People fixate on one to two details. Shiny goggles at night. A bright red scarf. They have trouble remembering any more than that."
"What about yer face? We were all on TV tonight."
She shrugged. "There was nobody wearing a red scarf anywhere in this area this morning."
"Mmm-hmm. Tifa!" He called.
Tifa came out between two buildings behind them. "All right, let's go."
The few creatures prowling in the dark gave Natalie enough danger to stay focused.
Tifa needed company. Barret would want to see Marlene.
Natalie did and didn't want to be alone.
They made it to Seventh Heaven. Natalie took a place by the wall to brood. Barret whispered in a growl about the grappling gun to a tired looking Wedge. Apparently the others had stayed up all night and into the morning waiting for Barret and the others to come back.
Natalie heard the sounds of voices as Tifa broke the news to the others about Cloud not making it that night. Barret wouldn't take no for an answer. Barret was convinced that Cloud would make it out OK. And he told the others the same.
They toasted Cloud and Barret reminded them about the nest step. The train they were on and about moving forward.
Natalie rolled over whether or not Cloud could survive a fall like that.
Someone patted her on the shoulder.
"He'll be a'right." Barret.
She nodded.
"Where's your fightin' spirit?"
"I left it in my other pants." Her voice was flat.
"Go get some R&R. All of yah go rest up. We have some days until the next job."
Natalie tapped out some of 'Empty' with her fingers. She wasn't in the mood for relaxing.
"Little help." Jessie asked. Her bed was a ways down the street.
"Here." Natalie scooped her up.
"Whoa. Be careful with that leg."
"Mm-hmm."
Natalie took Jessie so Barret could stay with Marlene in the Bar. Tifa sat with Barret, trying to put a brave face on. Wedge joined Natalie, making a joke about not having a hand free and watching her back for her.
"If you drop me to cast a spell, I'll bite your ankle!" Jessie warned Natalie with a smile.
"Sure." Natalie ignored the joke.
Jessie looked over Natalie's shoulder.
Natalie felt herself closing up, she didn't care. The only way forward was over the pain.
Jessie and Wedge went back and forth with each other, both trying to get a rise out of Natalie. Including comparisons to Cloud. "At least I know you can smile." Jessie bugged her.
Natalie could remember being carried like this once, by Sephiroth. Even with that being a good memory. It didn't help her mood.
"The pain will make you stronger." Jamie's voice filled Marin's ears.
"Jessie!" Wedge managed to prop Natalie enough to not drop Jessie.
Natalie had locked up mid step, nearly bowling them both forward.
"I said don't drop me!" Jessie cuffed Natalie on the shoulder.
Natalie looked around. But Jamie was no where to be seen and didn't say anything else.
They got Jessie back to her place without further incident.
"Cloud is fine, you'll see. He still owes me a date." As they put Jessie in her room.
If Wedge had a hat, he would be wringing it in his hands. They hoped Jessie would get some rest as Wedge walked Natalie back to her house. If Tseng had popped up in that moment. Natalie wouldn't have cared.
'It'll be ok Wedge, I'm going crazy with an image of my dead girlfriend in my head. It's fiiiine.'
Natalie made "I'm hearing what you're saying, but I'm not listening." noises to Wedge as they went to her door. He said good bye, she didn't remember how. Natalie put her sword, in it's sheath, out of reach of the bed. Just in case.
With the chair propped up against the door. She put her Materia bracer under her pillow and slipped into bed. She tried not to think of Cloud or Sephiroth. She failed.
"There is still so much work to be done." Jamie's voice.
"Shut up. Shut up. you're not real." Marin wrapped her arms around her head, trying not to think about the words she had just heard. Humming a song to herself in the darkness and silence, until sleep came. "Natalie, Natalie. My name isn't Marin anymore it's Natalie." She repeated to herself, reminding herself what her name was now.
Natalie woke up from a disturbing dream some time later. She had no idea how much of the day she had slept away. She was exhausted.
"I miss that shitty cafeteria coffee." She remembered the muddy-earthy taste of the endless supply of coffee Shinra HQ had supplied the SOLDIERs. While shoving a snack into her mouth, she washed it down with some liquor. She would need more sleep and soon. Pulling out her goggles, she grabbed her sword and went looking for trouble.
Diving into danger might get her mind off of her problems. It had worked in the Reactor.
Interlude :
"Ahh! Jamie, what are you doing?" Shawn lowered his hands from his ears, while Jamie attempted to play Marin's 'borrowed' ocarina.
Jamie glared at him from over the sheet music laid out on the table in front of her. "I'm trying."
"Can you try somewhere else?"
"I don't know, can you play those video games in some other house? Or are you going to pay to sound proof my bedroom?"
"Ok, fine. But can this wait until the afternoon? Screeching owls don't pair with my coffee well."
"You're not the only one busy with a life during the day. Beside-"
"It's for Marin. Yeah, OK I get it." Shawn looked to the living room. Danny wasn't up yet and it was his turn to use the television and the video games connected to it.
"So, what are you doing for Marin?" Jamie asked her brother.
"Research, since you dropped the ball on that."
Jamie frowned deeper, "There's nothing left to research, I've poured over all the maps. And I still know more about Gaia from being there, than anything on some website."
Shawn sighed, he had tried to bring Jamie into learning more about that other world. But she wasn't doing nothing, so there was little to argue about. Unless he wanted to get into another shouting match.
Shawn still had a legitimate question "But why the music? You could be working on your right hook downstairs."
"I already went for my morning run and workout before you got up."
"That doesn't answer my question."
Jamie sighed, "We have no idea what we're going into, when we ask Ardyn to go back. So I'm grasping at straws. Learning more about my girlfriend's hobbies to relate to her better."
Shawn sat down across from his sister, putting his serious face on. Jamie had used present tense. "So, that means you and Marin aren't-?"
Jamie stared down at the papers in front of her. "Yes, no, maybe. Ugh, that place made everything complicated." Jamie put the clay instrument down and put her face in her hands. "It's been nine years for her and we got yanked right before we died. There is no reason for her to think we're OK. And nine years is more than long enough to move on."
Shawn sipped his morning coffee instead of responding. Complicated was better than dead. But he could tell that that wouldn't reassure Jamie.
She kept going, talking through her hands. "Nine years. Fuck! Whether or not there's anything left of 'us.' We're still friends dammit. We could still be friends…"
"Yeah, I know."
Jamie lowered her hands and scowled down at the ocarina. "Marin told me that worries like this pushed out of her head when she practiced. I don't see it. I can barely read this shit. And her hand-written notes aren't making it any easier. Dammit!"
"May I?" Shawn asked.
Jamie shrugged and let him take the folder for himself.
He grimaced at the penmanship, Marin had clearly copied the music with no experience, only for herself to read. Some of the notes were drawn backwards.
"See?" Jamie asked him. "And mom and dad made you play the violin for years. I managed to get out of music with gymnastics. And now I'm paying for it."
Shawn pointed out "Maybe ask that last batch of wolves how your martial arts and gymnastics, combined with Val's lessons weren't 'worth it'."
"Hmm." Jamie made a negative grunt, but didn't argue the point further.
"I can work with this. But honestly, none of these are original songs. We can find better transcribed ones online and print them out. If it makes it easier for you."
"Not really, but if it makes it easier at all. I'll take it."
Shawn nodded. "Some of these look like she cribbed violin music for the ocarina."
"I wouldn't know, you're the one trained in music."
"I still have that violin too."
Jamie looked surprised. "Really? I though you pawned it to pay for your surgeries."
"I did. But I made enough money nights to buy it back. It also helps to have friends pay for what the insurance wouldn't." Shawn flipped through the sheet music. It was all poorly written, but he kept those judgments to himself. Marin had never asked for an opinion on her sheet music writing.
"Do you still know how to play?"
"Unfortunately yes, even if all I can do anymore is not make it sound like I'm strangling a cat."
Jamie giggled at the imagery.
Danny stumbled into the living-dining room. Looking drowsy and without his morning coffee. "Who's hurting a cat? Where?"
Jamie snorted and found herself laughing aloud at Danny's take.
Shawn found himself laughing despite himself.
"What did I say?" Danny looked tired and confused, looking between the other two people.
Shawn and Jamie only devolved to more laughter.
Danny shrugged and went to the kitchen. "Whatever, there better be coffee already."
While Danny got his first cup of coffee started, Jamie and Shawn's laughter faded away.
Jamie found herself looking at the ocarina like it was a mysterious creature. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore. But we have time, so we have to try something, anything."
"Yeah."
"I think we're over. I just took too long to tell her."
"But-?"
"But I can still care about her, miss her. She needs to be here, not there."
"Yeah." Shawn agreed.
"I don't know if we're going to get that option." Danny was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, sipping his coffee. "This is about Marin right?"
"When isn't it?" Shawn and Jamie said at the same time.
Danny sighed, taking a seat at the table. "We have all the time in the world, but we don't have forever."
"Ardyn said we can choose when."
Danny stared at Shawn, "And you trust that?"
Shawn shrugged, "What else to we have to go on? If we trust that guy with nothing. We have nothing."
"Fair."
"I don't trust him." Jamie declared. "I trust Marin."
Shawn was matter of fact, "We don't even know what kind of person Marin is anymore."
Jamie shot a glare at her brother. "She's still Marin."
Shawn sighed, 'not this argument again.' He had tried to tell Jamie over and over. Just his own physical changes over the last eight years had been a large shift in his own life. But it was more than that, he had changed as a person so much since he was eighteen just from the passing of time. And Marin had had the time to do that. Too grow-up and become her own person.
To Marin, Jamie was eighteen, she was still young 'basically a child' as Shawn used to think of 18. But Jamie didn't want to hear it. Not that every twenty-five year old was grown up or mature. But people changed, sometimes a lot.
And none of the people sitting at that table knew how.
"Yes, she's still Marin." Shawn agreed. "But-"
"No buts Shawn. We're not doing this again." Jamie warned Shawn.
"Guys-guys." Danny put his hands up. Deflating the tension before it turned into another incident. "How does arguing help any of us? Or Make us better at helping Marin?"
Jamie looked at Danny angrily, "You're the one who says it's too late to bring her home."
Danny sighed, "There's shit going on we don't even understand. As frustrating as Ardyn is, the problem is bigger than going back there to bring Marin back here."
"Ugh!" Jamie picked up the ocarina and turned it over in her hands. "Why does that asshole have to make things so complicated?"
"He said, or hinted," Shawn started explaining, "That it would be safer for everyone for Marin to do whatever she's doing over there. Than here."
Jamie carefully placed the ocarina down, she looked like she wanted to throw it. "That still doesn't tell us what's happening to her! What's the plan Danny?"
"I don't have a plan. At least, not beyond picking a spot to start looking."
"Really?" Jamie was angry, "We've already had months to figure this out!"
Danny threw up his hands, "We don't have enough information to have a big plan. We don't. We have to make a decision and just do it. Unless you want to wait around long enough that another nine years pass for Marin?"
Jamie crossed her arms across her chest, "Of course not." She stared down at the table.
Danny sipped his coffee some more, changing the subject. "I'm awake now, I heard talk of music…"
Shawn gestured with the music notes. "You know what Jamie's up too."
"And you play the violin?" Danny asked him.
"Yeah, bluegrass to piss off mom and dad. What are you getting at?"
Danny shrugged. "Marin likes music, at least I hope she still does."
Shawn shook his head, "And?"
"I dunno, form a band? What else have we got? We live our lives, struggle through some sort of fight practice. At least a flute or something wont bruise me. Money, gil, was hard to come buy. Who knows maybe it'll make us enough to get buy?"
"The bruises make us stronger." Jamie intoned.
Shawn bit back a retort. About scar tissue and broken bones were worse, with the illusion of getting stronger. But he was trying to avoid starting more arguments. "A flute? Really?"
"I don't know. What goes with a violin and that." Danny waved at the ocarina.
"Let me think about it." Shawn decided to give it serious thought after they were done talking.
Jamie looked at them both in disbelief. "You're not serious about this? A band?"
Danny finished his coffee. Telling Jamie, "You started it."
Shawn rubbed his face with his hands and put down his phone.
Jamie turned on him, "what's wrong? Was it Marin's mom?"
"That was a text from Mikhail. And it may or may not delay our little journey."
"He's not coming with us though." Danny stated frowning.
"That's not the problem. Mikhail knows nothing about our little plan." Shawn gestured at the other two people in the room. "He is bubbling over with excitement. The game we're been pouring over for the last while? Remake?"
"Oh no…" Jamie groaned. "What?"
"What is that look on your face?" Danny asked.
"It's getting a bunch of sequels. The next one is out this Christmas. We have more research to do."
Tseng looked over the damage report on his desk. Heidigger had over-reached with this project. But it wasn't his place to criticize the chair of the weapons division, to his face. So Tseng merely gathered the intel of the Reactor intruders.
The report included some glossy's highlighted by one of the Turk interns. An up and coming member that was due to join their little organization officially in the coming weeks.
Tseng surveyed Elena's work. She had been combing through the archives of cold cases and unresolved reports. So that when this latest 'incident' had hit the presses, an old face was fresh in her mind when it had passed her by. And she had passed that intel onto Tseng.
Shuffling through the enhanced glossy photos. He found the one Elena had tagged for her report. Tseng circled the figure on the edge of the photo with a red marker.
"Found you."
Staring up at Tseng was a familiar face, obscured by mirrored goggles and a red scarf around their neck. Wearing an otherwise unfamiliar get-up of a long coat and a pack slung over one shoulder. Tseng would recognize that lower face anywhere.
Steepling his fingers as he rested his elbows on the desk. "No longer missing, are you Marin?"
He stared at the photo. Promising himself that this time, she wasn't going to slip through his fingers.
"Nobody gets away from the Turks."