"You betrayed me. I trusted you and you betrayed me."
She shortened the distance between them so fast that he couldn't manage even to take a single step back.
"I had no choice, I can't cover a murder..."
"Quit the excuses!" her voice was so sharp and cold, even violent. Reno realized this wasn't Akane, mutant came to life and he was alone in one room with it.
"Oh, hey, yo, let's think about it before you make something we both regret..."
He couldn't finish. Girl's eyes shined like flashlights in his dark room, he saw a pair of sharp fangs when she screamed, grabbed him like he was a toy and threw him against the wall, his head hit the red bricks and he fell on the ground.
"Damn it..."
He managed to stand fast enough to prevent the next attack and push her back, which made her even more angry, long claws instead of her nails left four deep cuts at his face. Next thing he felt was those same claws pressed on his neck just on top of the artery, one move and he would be dead. He couldn't call for help, even if he did, it would be too late.
"Please, don't."
The turquoise in her eyes was gone, now they were almost pure white with golden circles on the edges and slits instead of pupils.
"Akane, please!"
Her vampire-like teeth clenched and she moved forward, he closed his eyes, maybe it would hurt less if he didn't watch.
He was surprised to see she took a step back and didn't rip off his head. Still his own blood was staining his shirt, dropping from his cut face.
His heart was probably trying to escape his chest, so fast it was beating. His breath heavy, shortened, he tried to realize he wasn't dead and there was a mutant a few steps from him in his room at Shinra castle.
"I didn't betray you" he dared to speak. "I told Rufus the truth, I told him not to hunt you down... Even Rude won't speak to me after that!"
He wiped the blood and his white shirt sleeve turned red.
"I'm just a pawn here, if you think I control anything..."
"No" said her voice in the dark, only two small table lamps and here white eyes were still shining in the dark room. "I know you don't."
She turned her back on him and what he saw made his guts turn into ice. A wing. A beginning of a black wing on her right shoulder.
"Don't do that." He forgot all of the caution and made a few bold steps to reach her. He knew she would go after Rufus now. After the entire Shinra leadership. "If you kill them you will prove yourself a monster. You are still human, Akane!"
He took a step back when she looked at him, those eyes made him shake from the inside.
"I stop being human when your boss and his fellows put that thing into my father and made him just a number of their experiments."
"Your father?"
For one terrible moment he recognized the half god, the one winged angel in her. Her silver-blue hair, her black wing.
" We are... Monsters ... We have neither dreams nor honor."
Then she jumped out of the window and was nowhere to be found.