"You don't understand. None of you understand me. All I want is… Perfection. Completeness. Why is that so bad? Why are all of you struggling to keep being that simple basic form of life, you could be so much better, you could be more."

Reno was in weightlessness, it was too bright around, Rude would scratch his eyes if he was here. Somehow Reno realized there was nobody around, maybe even Genesis wasn't here. Maybe it was his time, after all. He never hoped to live too long with his job, but 34 was a record. He never got into a serious relationship, never adopted a dog, never saw his parents after he left his home, never got a tattoo… His life was his job, some friends, covering things they messed up, all of this seemed to be an entire loop of the same events for so long. Being perfect? What is that supposed to mean? He was a human, was that one winged freak trying to persuade him to be turned into a mutant? What for? Maybe he kept wilting, maybe he was looking for more copies to make…

Sudden sharp pain got him back into reality and he screamed, his body twisted.

"He is back" someone over his head said. "Blood pressure is low, he lost a lot of blood. We need AB positive, two banks at least. Not having eye contact, 100 micrograms epinephrine, we are losing him, come on!"

Some people were rushing around, like a beehive of busy bees. His pale body, connected with dozens of wires to the peeping machines, turquoise eyes open but no reaction to the world around him. Was that Rude, arguing with Elena, who was keeping him outside the anesthesiology room? Was he still wearing his glasses? What the hell was going on?

"Breathe" someone placed a mask with stupid blue bubble on his mouth. "He is not breathing, aspirator needed. Come on, people, move!"

"Need to bring a defibrillator, he is dying."

"Come on, Reno, you are too young to die, come on!" the doctor was saying, Rude and Elena kept arguing outside. It was all so blurry.

"Charge fifty. At three. One, two, three."

His body was electrocuted, heart flatlined.

"75, charging, step back! Again!"

"Sir, please wait outside, you need to wait outside!"

Rufus left the room, and both Turks jumped on him with questions.

"Is he alright, what's going on?"

"Is he going to be alright? Boss!"

Rude grabbed the front of Rufus Jacket and shook him, Elena tried to push him away.

Rufus didn't look at him. He shook his head and passed by. Elena tried to keep Rude out again, while he was fighting to enter the room and reach his dying partner.

Reno never told anyone, but he actually loved dogs. Had one when he was a kid, his name was Roger and it was some mix he found on the street and he insisted on keeping it. It was something of a hound and a small decorative breed, sharp fur with a color of sand, and it was all dirty when he found it. For a while he was trying to make up a plan to keep the dog, then just entered the house and said he had a dog and whoever had a problem with it, had to leave. Reno was lucky his parents were good people and never actually made a big deal for all the chaos he used to create when he was young.

In his teen years he got into some street bands, a few times had problems with the police, he was about 25-6 when Shinra hired him, since then he never left.

For what happened inside Shinra he never spoke outside, that was the code and not that he was afraid, but none of his past known would understand. So now he had a nice place to stay, inside or outside the castle, some crazy expensive toys to break, a partner with a craziness that matched his own… Why would he ever leave? They made him faster, stronger, had some friends here, a girl too…

That man, Genesis, promised him to bring her back. Maybe he could, Reno thought, no matter how his mind alarmed him that it was a lie, a bluff for a desperate one to reach more victims. Maybe Genesis knew some honor back then, but how many years passed? A mind kept isolated, captured by his own failure, what good could come of it?

At some point his heart started beating so all the doctors came to the room, trying to hold it, from zero it blood pressure reached critical level.

"Systolic 190 and raising, it was just the opposite half an hour ago, what's going on here?"

Reno rose on the table, ripping off most of the wires, trying to catch his own breath. He realized he had a pipe in his throat and removed it so fast that his throat got soar. He started coughing.

"Calm down, lay back down, we need to check your blood pressure…"

"He is dying."

"What are you talking about, you were in a coma, and we need to check…"

"Let me go, I need to talk to the boss…"

They tried to keep him in place, holding him down, which wasn't helping his blood pressure at all.

"Calm down, your results are critical…"

He was trying to fight back, all those hands pushing him back to the table, at some moment in his mind a memory, a spark, he saw one of those tubes filled with green thing, holding people inside, against their will, turning them into monsters.

"Hands off, fuckers!"

Reno pushed away them with a strength he didn't know he have, then jumped from the table they kept him for how long he couldn't say.

"Sir, you need to stay in the hospital!" one of the nurses was insisting.

"Come near me and you will need a hospital."

When rushed into the meeting hall, everybody, including Rufus, were looking at him like he was insane.

"Boss, Genesis is here because he is degrading again, that's why he never attacked in the first place, that's why…

He stopped, looking at them all, staring at him.

"What?"

He realized he was still half naked, some wires and needles still on his arms, were they deaf or something, they had to turn the Shield on again.

At the same moment Rude and Elena entered and she literally hugged him, started crying, Rude was pale like he saw a ghost.

"What?!" red haired asked again. "We have an emergency… Girl, would you stop?" He pushed her away. Got some of the other agents' jackets left on the chair and put it on.

" Reno, you were almost dead." Rufus left the documents he was holding and passed all of the agents there, standing before him with the same experience of shock.

"What?"

"You were in a coma." He told him.

Red haired look around. Ok, all was a little blurry, but he knew that hall, those people, he was just badly injured, not a big deal after all.

"Well I'm not dead, and we have a problem."

"Tell me what you remember" Rufus was too wary, was he keeping a distance? Maybe afraid Reno could attack him?

He refused to sit, but told him what he remembered. Rufus insisted him to return into the hospital, Reno left without explaining anything to him. Suddenly he felt endangered by those people.

Walking back to his room, he started realizing some moments of the story were not there, Rude kept explaining to him what happened, he knew only the conversation with Genesis and that he fell there unconsciousness.

"I wasn't dead, come on. I have nine lives… Come on, guys, are you for real?"

Elena was rushing along with them, Rude had that look a building collapsed on his head.

At some point she left them alone and they both were standing outside under the starless sky, it was unusually cloudy tonight.

"It all went dark" Rude was telling "me and Cloud couldn't see anything."

"That's when Genesis interrupted" Reno said, bending forward, supporting his arms on the terrace fence. Now he was kinda numb, not feeling the pain in the back, or anything else.

"Hours passed, man, when the choppers came and found you, you were not breathing."

"What are you talking about, hours?" Reno was confused.

"They kept you in the hospital like forever, then Rufus told us…"

Rude passed his hand on his face."

"And you decided I'm dead? Great… I assume you blamed yourself for that too."

Rude was glad it was dark, so Reno couldn't see the regret on his face.

"I'm glad you are back, partner. Again."

"Of course."

Reno was still wearing that jacket of someone else, needed to get back to his room, change, maybe have a rest…He wasn't tired at all.

"What did he tell you?" Rufus said.

Now Reno found the darkness so helpful. He was playing with his fingers on the railing for a while.

"He told me he could bring her back."

"Akane?" the other man asked.

"He told me we are so simple and limited, or something like that, and he was trying to make us perfect. He offered me…"

"Please don't. Don't tell me you agreed."

"I'm not that stupid, partner" Reno cut him. "But I wanted to. He was using my weak spot to take over. I supposed he offered you too, immortality, power."

"Why didn't you accept?"

"Life is too long, anyway, who wants to live forever. And what happened to that annoying Soldier?" Reno remembered.

"He's alive. Left a little bruised but he's in one piece. Do you think we should have to fight Genesis?"

"I don't know. Boss called Tseng out, we are minus one man. I believe Cloud and his gang would help, but…"

He didn't finish his line. Instead Reno found himself staring at the dark, some crickets still calling out here, without an answer.

"Here" Rude gave them back his glasses. "They saved my life."

"I don't need them."

They were standing there in silence for a while. Rude was so relieved, an hour ago they told him his partner was dead.

"Hey, man" Rude was struggling to say something, so he decided to let it out after all. "You did the right thing. Letting him in, turn you into something like that… You could see how all of the mutants ended, all One winged, all the copies…There's no blessing in it."

"Aren't you a smart one? Let's go to bed, and don't wake me up for work tomorrow" red haired warned.

"I'm afraid I have to, boss sent us to talk to Cloud, we need to tell him about the situation."

"Again? No phones?"

"I don't think he will answer us after the last time. Hope he's not on a date."

"Blah" Reno said.

"Some of us had to go on dates, dude is trying to put his life together."

"No details, please" Reno stopped him.

Already inside the corridor, Rude took the way to the elevator, Reno was going left.

" Night, parner." Red haired raised his hand, dragging his feet to the next level and his room.

"Same".

Last lights faded after the Turks, empty corridors, quiet halls.