It was nice to be at the meeting hall after all this time, no matter the occasion. Last time Reno collected the people telling them Rufus was hurt, probably dead.
"I was fooled to believe Genesis had good intentions" Rufus was speaking. "He gave us an ultimatum and we started shutting down the reactors with preparations to build a regular power plant. His actions tonight show one more time that this man is not our friend and doesn't care if we live or die."
"What are we going to do?" the new chef of the Solder asked.
"We will attack. We will fight. We will defend our people and our city. It will probably cause a lot of destruction, but we will not stand and watch Genesis and his people striking again and again. We will destroy them before they destroy us."
Reno closed his eyes for a second. After the last time it was more than sure Akane would be one of "his people". He couldn't believe he had to do this.
There were cases in Turk's dossiers where agents sacrificed their own families for the company. He never doubted what his words back on that roof would cause, but killing her himself? The girl he liked? The one who defended and gave her green light to run away from Shinra? And then she died, protecting him and standing against all she was?
"She is different, Reno, now her master is here, she can't be helped."
"In other occasions I would act on my own and never even ask for permission" he was standing before his boss, hands clenched in fists. "I can't do this. You can't make me do this."
"And what's your solution?" Rufus folded his coat and sat behind his desk. "Kill Genesis but let her live? You know as well as I do that she won't let anyone live if we kill him. Even more, once the original is gone, copies will die too."
Reno's throat got tight; he couldn't say anything in defense.
"It's her choice, her path. I'm sorry, Reno."
Red haired never showed it, but something inside him cracked broken.
"I will ask you onetime" his eyes raised. "Don't make me be the one who will do it."
He turned back and left the president's office before the answer.
Life was a strange thing. They say you are a free person, you have free will, but at the end you are forced to do things that break your life, or those of the people you love.
Reno was sitting on the top of the highest part of the building, even birds didn't go there. He never betrayed his duty; it was something he believed in. Many times he broke the company rules, not following orders if he disagreed with them, but this time it was different. It wasn't just a side door for her to escape, like the last time, she would never betray Genesis, it was in her cells. She would die the way Kadaj died for that so-called mother, unable to think on their own.
Reno was about to swear on the creation, life and death, and everything, when an idea arose in his head. He slid on the roof surface and jumped on the next one, almost flying, like a bird. Already in front of the emergency exit he was calling the laboratory.
"James, it's Reno. You there? Don't lie to me, I know you are there, you are on duty today. I am not stealing another monkey, I have a very interesting proposition for you. No, you can't deny it. You better be there when I arrive in a few."
James was the elder scientist Reno stole the test monkey from him for Marlene. He was very uncomfortable to see him again in his laboratory, renovated and expensive.
"Don't break anything, please!" the man rushed to save his jars and examples. "You, leave!" he barked at two other physicians.
"No, stay, I have a task for you."
"You don't have a task for me, you better leave, before…"
"Can you change a dna?"
The two men and one woman there looked confused, and the old man was intrigued.
"Change a DNA? You want me to turn your girl's monkey into a parrot?"
"You are funny" Reno slapped his hand on the work table and jars started ringing.
"Ok, ok!" James rushed to save them. "Just stop the carnage! What dna?"
"If one DNA affected another, like a cancer mutation, could it be removed without causing the death of the carrier?"
"I won't waste time to heal your monkey…"
"I'm talking about a human."
Both other scientists start whispering to each other.
"It is possible." Finally the woman said. "It depends on how far the mutated DNA affected the carrier. Minerva" she introduced herself and reached her hand to shake his. "I am the head of the biological department. Never had a human case but I am aware of the previous… examples of the company." Woman changed the sentence in the middle.
She was aover 40, tall, very thin, with curly light brown hair. Her face was average, not even pretty, but she was a sharp one, Reno could say.
"We will need samples. All the information you could provide us with."
"And it will stay between us." Reno said. "No reports, no records, not even notes."
"I am not getting involved in this!" James pointed at him. "I am not going to lose my job because of your freaking…"
Reno rose his rod and hit the jars that burst into pieces all around the laboratory. Man screamed in fright.
"One word from you, and you will become a test subject yourself. Stay out of my way, I don't need your help." Reno turned back to the woman, who was holding her cool face and nodded. "You will have your sample. And everything you need, I will provide you whatever you ask for."
Reno walked out of the laboratory and a new kind fire burned in his chest. He was the most reckless among Turks, and his position gave him access to almost anything. For the first time he was about to do something like that, behind the back of Rufus, for himself, and for sure against Shinra policy. But if he could do it, he could spare a life. The one he cared about.
For days Reno was silent, Rude kept distance out of respect, but when his visits to the laboratory became more frequent, his partner ambushed him at the exit.
"You are going to steal a pet mutant for me too?"
"Not the best time." Reno tried to avoid him.
"You know you can't run from me." Rude stood on his way, it was obvious he would use force if Reno refused to talk.
They went out of the building, far from any cameras, microphones and stuff. Walking around the swan lake, now covered with orange and red leaves, a place where the director himself liked to spend his break, two men were the only dark spot around.
"You know you can trust me. Tell me what you are up to."
"I'm not sure. For your own good…"
"My own good is to know what my partner is involved in. So I can react before that thing blows your head away. And mine with it!"
Reno got one leaf from the ground, examining its strings. When autumn arrived and trees were about to prepare for the winter, they used to stop providing juice for the leaves. So they die. Just like veins in the human body, strings without juice were useless.
"What if there is a way to eliminate the Genesis cells from her body? What if I can save her?"
Rude frowned. His sensors for trouble turned from yellow to red.
"Go on." Was the only thing he said.
"What if…What if they purify her? What if they turn her back to human?"
"Oh, my dear friend" Rude sat on the bench at their right and shook his head. "Even you can't be so desperate. This is not possible."
"We turn people into mutants. Why not mutants to people? Why not?"
Reno starts walking on the edge of the lake, his hair the same color as oak, Japanese maple and aspen trees around.
"Because his cells keep her alive. Genesis told us she was dying and only his cells were keeping her whole. If you remove them… If that's even possible…"
Reno kneeled by the edge of the lake. Last time he had that compulsive desire to jump, from the helicopter, from the roof the other day, now in the lake. Just jump and stop thinking if he was going to land anywhere or not.
"You want to erase Jenova from her" Rude's voice reached him. " This is not cancer, Reno. Even cancer resumes. We will need a whole new science to do this. A few folders of information and a sample won't help, even if we manage to capture her and bring her here…"
"Ok, stop telling me what we can't!" Reno yelled at him and raised.
Rude didn't answer. It was hard for him to watch his partner in such a situation. He was the one that never gave up. And what if he did it? What if he tries, risks it all, and believes she would be fine, and she dies?
"Maybe it's time to let her go, man." Rude got on his feet too.
"Would you like that for yourself?" Reno looked at him. "If it was you, leave you there, with the mind of someone in your head? Leading you, changing you, making you kill people? If there was a chance for you to live?"
"Oh, my god, Reno…" the other man shook his head. "You are a pain in the ass. What do you require?"
At the main alley Cloud and Tifa were leaving. Cloud was as always, cloudy, silent and angry. At least he nodded seeing them, Tifa was too worried even to notice them.
"Do you think we can trust them?" he asked his company.
"I think the time for this conversation has passed." Tifa got her helmet from the parked close to the portal bike. "Rufus might have been the villain in the past, now he is evacuating people, not sending Soldier to kill them."
"So you trust him?"
"Cloud, why is that now?" she left the helmet and raised her hands in question. "We have a bigger problem."
"You and Marlene are my family, I want to know he will not put you in danger."
"I can take care of myself, thanks. Plus, Reno and Rude are a walking trouble, but I trust them. Since Marlene is in Turk they literally carry her on their hands. You think guys who are taking care of a little girl that isn't even their responsibility, would make a conspiracy against the people?"
"I think they are following orders, as we did once. And I think I know Rufus Shinra better than you. It was his company that created Sephiroth and Genesis."
"It was his father's company." Tifa pointed out. "Let's do our part, and be ready to answer if something goes wrong."
She got behind him on the bike and held his waist.
"My stupid Tifa, something always goes wrong."