Day was extremely cold, probably because none of them felt good. Reno woke up, forgot about all of his injuries and found it hard to stand up, to put his clothes on even more. At the end he gave up and threw his jacket on his shoulders.

He wasn't dizzy anymore, which wasn't a plus. All the pain from last night came back and he had to somehow get his pills. He couldn't use his both hands properly, his jacket dropped and he had to pick it up again. Till he was done shoulder started hurting again.

Reno didn't dare look himself in the mirror, left his room heading to the meeting hall, someone should tell him what was going on. On his way he bumped into Rude and Elena.

They were both sitting in one niche at the corridor, two large ficuses were hiding them from the eyes of the curious watchers. Reno leaned on the wall, as much as his shoulder let him, and started listening.

"…Will be fine, Rufus already sent our people to call for help. You should not be worried."

"Not be worried?" Elena said. "We almost lost you last night, both of you. I don't ever want to experience this again. The moment I saw you laying there, surrounded by the betrayers, all in blood…"

She hid her mouth with her hand.

"You won't, I promise."

"You can't promise such a thing, you stupid!"

Rude got her hand in his and very slowly got closer and found her lips.

"It was about fucking time!"

Elena jumped on her place, startled, Rude's face got red.

"Reno!"

"Nine years" he came standing before them with a grin on his face. "Nine freaking years!"

"You ever heard of privacy?" Rude scolded him, Elena was avoiding his eyes, also blushing.

"Let's go get some coffee and you, love doves, will tell me what I'm missing."

"Some manners" Elena pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah."

They sat at the cafeteria, rain started again, they were sitting at one free table and Reno needed a straw to drink his coffee, his both hands were useless.

"Rufus asked how every time you get out" Elena helped Reno to mix the sugar in his coffee" are getting home in parts."

"Call it talent" his jaw was still sore.

It felt good, being back home. This he knew, this he called home. His colleagues, the morning coffee, work that cost him a week at the hospital from time to time, the fun he had outside at missions.

"Enemy Soldiers were taken down" Elena informed them. "People are sent to restore the electricity, still three of the sectors are totally taken over."

"We never had to deal with something like this before" Rude was saying."Even Sephiroth didn't play that dirty."

"You saying you prefer him?"

"I'm saying I prefer neither" Rude finished his coffee.

"No such luck" Elena looked a little down.

"What boss want us to do?" Reno was thinking of going outside and shooting at something.

"Nothing." Elena told him. "He forbade you two from getting out of the base for at least a week."

"A weak?" both Reno and Rude shout.

"You are on sedatives and they turned you into a puzzle" Elena pointed at Reno. "And you…"

"They stitched whatever, and tomorrow I'll be ready to run again," Rude outran her.

"You won't leave me here and have fun without me" Reno suddenly got in his fight mode and pointed at him.

"You are in worse condition than me. Have a few days break, play video games."

"Guys, stop it" Elena was hiding her face.

"I can beat your ass if I want to."

"You can't mix your own coffee…"

"Stop it!" Elena yelled and they both realized what a noise they made. The entire bar was looking at them. "Oh, I was so wrong thinking that you two could act like adults for at least five minutes!"

She left her place and the café.

"Thank you" Rude turned dark as a storm. "You are such a help, partner!"

"Don't sweat it, she will be back."

"How do you know?" Rude was more than mad at him.

"Trust me."

"I don't trust you."

"First" Reno looked at him "she is a girl. Girls burst for nothing. Second, she is surely touched by your revelation and that will prevail over her anger. And third… Girls are dying to save a man in need. You are using a third leg to walk. Do I need to continue?"

"No" Rude was even more mad, but his partner had a point. Or he hoped so.

Reno rested his back on the chair, his previous injury was just there. Ripping his skin, getting under the ribs, damaging his left kidney. Lately he got a lot of these, cuts, shoots, punches. He was one of those people who would break their head and at the moment they heal, they would do it again. He was like this since a kid, nothing would change him.

"So?" Rude looked at him.

"So?"

"You realize we have a day off? When did the boss give us a day off? We are free like birds!"

Reno started laughing and his ribs called.

"The moment I'm trying to be humble and disciplined, you ruin it all."

"Shut up and let's go!" Rude got his jacket and his crutch, heading to the door.

Chopper was circling over the blown reactor at sector 5. Reno landed it with some extra efforts and both Turks headed to the destroyed portal.

"You tell me what we are doing here?" Rude was still using the crutch.

"There's no guard, no security code, the place is considered a ruin. Till our people seal it, there will be days."

"And?"

"And it's free for visitors."

Portal of the reactor was indeed under ruins, but they managed to get in. It was dusty and dark in the main corridor. Ceiling was tilted, and almost collapsed. Lights on the walls not working. Some doors were locked, some - opened from the explosion.

"You want to die here, partner? Why not enter hell instead."

"Listen" red haired raised his bandaged hand.

A sound of running water, a stream maybe. A few more steps deeper in the corridors a green glow made both men cover their eyes.

"The mako energy..."

The liquid live stream was all around, spilled out of the pipes, making small streams, turning into a river, deeper and deeper with every single step.

"What are we doing here?" Rude repeated.

"You know what they give us in the hospital?" Reno raised his hand to the closest source. "0,2 percents of the clear energy. This here, partner, is a pure drug. It can move a train."

His fingers started tingling from even being close to the stream, his eyes started glowing, he could feel how damaged bones in his body hardened, the skin healed, at some point he felt such a rush of energy that his heart couldn't take it, he made a few steps back. He ripped his bandage and clenched his both hands in fists.

"Dear mother of god" Rude whispered. Green was reflecting on his glasses.

"Go ahead, fix yourself. Or you will keep limping around all week?"

He was watching how the entire Rude's body shook when he got closer, needed to pull him back after a while, then make their path out of the reactor.

"Boss will kill us" Rude was almost running to the chopper, forgetting about his crutch.

"No, he won't. He will never know."

"This is forbidden, even for us. Holy shit!"

Reno smirked, the green glow in his eyes was obvious.

"This is not the first forbidden place we enter, my friend. Won't be the last."

Rude was making circles in his room, energy was bursting out of him. Of course Rufus knew about the effect of mako energy, he was the one ordering those experiments in the not so distant past. Why didn't he keep them, if this could make the army stronger? They were almost defeated by their own people a night ago.

Rude shook his head. The radiation already made him crave for more. This very same energy is used to turn people into monsters. It was now used only for electricity purposes, running around the city. If only people knew…

He clenched his arm into a fist, he could feel it inside of him, it almost made him dizzy, no matter a few hours passed since they left the reactor. No matter they were only close to it, they never touched it. This thing was a hell of dangerous.

Turks, like Soldiers, were radiated, not that much but they got some mojo in order to do their job for the company. It happened once, it was monitored, classified, only laboratory had access to the mako energy, and some other interesting stuff.

Turks on the other hand had access mostly to everything, they were closest to the leadership of the company, information, weapons, unreleased yet gadgets, old files and records. Every society had its dark secrets, Turks were allowed to the most of the Shinra's worst deeds, even more, they were behind it.