"You there?"
Reno found Akane in her apartment, two small rooms not far from the center on a quiet street. Not much to look at, but a perfect for alone working person without pets.
Place was old, but Akane managed to make it comfortable for herself. In the living room/office/kitchen there was a small white foldable dining table, the kitchen had dark counters, green tiles. No tv in the room, a grey laptop was left of two seated sofa, also grey, that was supposed to be her office. And a lot of plants, everywhere, most of them cacti.
Reno found her in the bedroom, a simple low double bed with white sheets, industrial shelves made of light wood. Some books on the end table.
"They sent me to check on you." he was standing at the door, it was blind to see she wasn't in her best condition.
"I shouldn't have come here, I attracted him. I…"
She was sitting on the bed and holding her head with hands.
"You, you, you…" He closed the door and came closer. "All of you keep blaming yourselves." He came and sat next to her. "It's nothing to do with you, you hear me?"
"He would be mad to see how far his kids gone…"
"What?" Reno asked.
"Genesis. He used to recite Loveless. You may believe it or not" Akane was calmed a little "but he was the most refined of all Angels. Angeal was the Soldier, Sephiroth – the Conquer, Genesis had dreams, despite he denied it."
"I never knew him" Reno said.
"You'd love him" Akane said, her face wearing a sad smile. "He used to break the rules, just like you. He would be crushed; knowing one of his copies stained his name this way. I can't believe it!"
"I'm sure he can't either."
Reno never met in person one of the One Winged. Of course, he was there when the battle between Sephiroth and Cloud was led, but never got in contact. Never asked himself what it would be like being in their place, are they right or wrong, he was just following orders.
"You knew Aerith?" the girl asked.
"Barely" he said.
"They called her savior. I wonder if there's salvation for those like me."
"Like what?" Reno burst. "You are what? A monster? Because some shit called you that?"
"Because me and Finis, and Genesis, Sephiroth, we are all an enemy to the human kind. We were created this way, Reno, can't you see it?"
Her turquoise eyes were full of pain and self doubt now.
"No, I can't."
He rose on his feet and made a distance.
"You are what you are, girl, not what someone calls you or made you. It's a choice you make, nobody makes it for you."
He left her, heading to the base, he was sick of all this. The guilt, the horror, the One winged, mutants, shields, goddamn hybrids and any of this.
Despite the order and the restriction, Reno got one of the choppers and left the base in an unknown direction. He needed to vents his head and in air it was most likely to do that.
The entire city had looked so small from here, almost illusional. Reno landed the chopper near the old ruins and found himself a place on the top of one building near to collapse. Landscape was sad, grey, rusty, like a graveyard of lonely buildings. Nobody wanted them, they were not like Shinra's new mansion, not modern, shiny and beautiful. So those buildings came here to die, unwanted, forgotten.
Yet the Turk came here, leaving the nice Shinra castle to spend some time in the graveyard.
Wind came from the north, playing with his hair for a second, then took away a pigeon feather and left it to land on the dusty road. Reno could see a little girl from the place he stood, that found the feather and a smile came on her face.
"Look, mommy, a feather! Sky sent me a feather! It's so beautiful!"
"Come on, Mia, let's go home, we shouldn't stay outside for long."
"But I may find more feathers..."
"You know what they say about those who prefer solitary?"
Reno wasn't too surprised when a figure dressed in red, with night black hair landed at his left, keeping some distance.
"They say you must be a wild beast or a god to prefer it, instead of being around people." Vincent finished.
"I needed to think," Reno said. "How did we allow the situation to reach this point?"
"You allowed nothing. Shinra could never control the things that came out of its doors."
"You made me feel so much better" the red haired sarcastic said.
"Simply the truth."
Reno was watching in not a specific spot, his head was so full of questions, suggestions, regrets, that he needed to channel at some point or his brain would soon explode.
"Did you know Genesis?" he asked.
"Never met him." short answer.
"I thought you knew everybody."
"Just like you, I was a Turk, following orders and not sticking my nose in stuff out of my jurisdiction."
"You not sticking your nose in?" Reno looked at him. "You are the label of stucking nose in the wrong places, man."
"Why do you ask about Genesis?" Vincent changed the topic. He started getting annoyed by the Turk with the big mouth.
"If he is out there, does he know what his copies are doing?"
"I can't tell."
"Once he tried to destroy Shinra, maybe this is his way, after all."
"Every copy has its own mind, I doubt he is controlling them."
Reno got even more questions.
"Do you think we can beat this?"
Vincent kept silent so long that Reno thought he wouldn't answer.
"For the sake of those we care about, we must."
Coming back to the base, he ignored the lecture of the guards that he wasn't supposed to get out.
"Where were you?" Rude catched up on him at the main corridor.
"I needed to take a breath."
"That breath could cost your life, partner."
"Spare me the maternal care."
"What's with you lately?" Rude raised his hands with a question. "You are just not yourself."
"I was thinking…"
"You know how to think? I'm surprised, you're progressing."
Reno would usually say something in return, he wasn't in the mood even to argue.
"What if…" red haired was up to something again. "What if we don't just stand and wait here, what if we trigger the things?"
"I am listening."
They went to the window where Reno sat again and his eyes squinted.
"What if… Place a trap for this thing and make it fall into it?"
"I'm not sure if you hit your head, Reno, but I am interested. Go on."
"I have an idea."
Reno jumped from the window and ran the direction they just came from.
"What is going on here?" Tseng passed them by.
"He has an idea."
"You know, last time he said that, we needed a million and a half to cover the damages!"
"Heh" Rude smiled guilty and ran after his partner.
"You gonna tell me why are we left the base and we stole the electromagnet of the company?" Akane was at the back seat of the chopper, in free space a giant device known as electromagnet, the second part of it, was sparkling in blue.
"This genius here..." Rude started, but was interrupted.
"Hey, hush, don't ruin the surprise for the lady. I am flattered that you praise my idea so highly, but… Wait and you will see."
Chopper was circling over a small area and at first sight there was nothing special about it.
"Who are… Is that Cloud?"
"The entire squad" Reno nodded. "They liked the plan very much."
"Yoo, partner, you know that freak wants Akane, right?" Reno said while they were running to the elevator to go to the roof.
"How is that helping us?"
"Well, if she agrees…"
"You want to use your girlfriend as a bite!?" the man frowned.
"No, come on. She is not my girlfriend, we slept once. Ok, three times."
Rude covered his face again, like he was ashamed.
Before getting to the chopper, Turks borrowed the device from the laboratory.
"This is a stealing" Rude told him, while they were taking the giant magnet upstairs.
"Don't be such a grandma, you would love it."
"Yeah, if it's shiny."
"You did your part, right?" Rude was checking the radar, where Cloud, Tifa, Barett and even Vincent were running after them like a tail.
"I did. I left a trail. So what are you going to do, guys?" Akane was looking at one, then another, she had a very bad feeling about it.
Even before Akane could sense it, the chopper start shaking, a dark shadow presence became stronger and stronger.
"Let's the fun begin."
The moment Reno pressed the button the magnet got activated. A net of lifestream shields covered the area. Shadow of Finis Vitae got solid outlined, Rude could swear he never saw something more unpleasant in his life.
Shadow man had a grey rotten wing, almost eaten face showing malformed skull, absolutely dark eyes, body that was about to collapse in pieces. He couldn't imagine being close to this. And Reno was.
"Take this, son of a bitch!" Reno raised the nose of the chopper and started shooting at him with the improved lifestream gun.
"He won't be able to leave the shield cage, we will finish him inside." Reno said back at the base.
"If he doesn't finish us first."
"Tomato, tomeito."
"You should tell Tseng about your idiotic plan, ah!" Akane was holding both of the seats.
Machine tilted and she was about to fall through the open doors.
"I told him" Rude said as another chopper opened fire, along with them.
"You can't keep your mouth shut, can you?" Reno accused him.
"Why, to keep the fun only for yourself? They deserve to join too."
Terrible scream came from the ghost-alike creature that made the shield net tremble. Reno knew that scream very well, it could make even the bravest man shrink inside himself.
"Not today, Voldi." Red haired tripled the effort, their chopper and the one Tseng was flying circled around Finis.
"Would you stop with Harry Potter references?" Rude striked one of the rockets that passed through the shadow man like through a veil, and hit one of the blocks behind him.
"What the…" Akane's jaw just dropped. The entire block collapsed before their eyes in a cloud of dust.
"It's nothing" Rude convinced her. "Last time we ruined an entire bridge."
"But… But there are people out there!"
"Nah" Reno waved his hand. "Don't worry. Cloud's girlfriend will take care.
"Who?" Akane shakes her head.
"The one with the big…eyes."
Rude was trying not to laugh behind him.
"Unbeliavable."
"You know what's unbelievable?" a familiar voice came on the radio, another machine raised and they created a triangle around Finis."After all these years you two give zero damn about the company policy."
Reno and Rude looked at each other, they were in trouble.
"Heh heh, no such thing, sir." Reno sent another strike to the floating Ghost in the air. "This thing was just collecting dust in the basement, we thought we could get some use out of it."
"You know the laboratory can't work without the magnet." Rufus sent his own strike while lecturing them.
At the same moment the rotten creature hit the chopper of Tseng and Elena and the fan burst in fire, sending the chopper to the ground.
"No!" Rude turned left, ready to follow and catch them in the air, which was impossible, but he still got out of his place.
Even before him, Akane was already at the door. Her black wing opened the moment she jumped. She reached the falling chopper and got both agents out before it crashed in fire on the ground. Then she raised and now two creatures were spreading their wings over the battlefield.
Her eyes turned pure white, her wing black as night, she rose and claws grew from her hands like blades.
"Now the real fun begins."
