Five days before Halloween. The entire meeting hall was decorated with pumpkin and bats garlands, pumpkin lanterns, skulls and candles.
"Isn't that too much?" Elena found the little skull in front of her ridiculous.
"Oh, come on" even Rude was in a good mood. "Halloween is the only time of the year you can act like an idiot, and nobody puts you behind bars for that."
Tseng was also serious, but obviously liked it, he saw the ghost sticker Reno put on the back of his uniform but never removed it.
"I just don't understand the purpose of these." She put the skull aside and opened the last research results.
"For fun" Reno got his place, wearing plastic vampire teeth. "Do we have any progress?"
"Progress?" Tseng laughed at him. "With three bombed reactors and two shut down?"
"Did Rufus say something about that? What should we do?"
"Nothing yet."
"We can start working on a power plant, even if not using it in full power, it would provide some power after all."
"Those are millions wasted." Tseng shook his head. "Only to fool Genesis."
"How was the weapon testing?" Elena asked.
"Terrible." Reno removed the fake teeth. "Aiming is so bad that it may blow away Midgar, trying to take Genesis down. They are fixing it now."
"We can't keep living under his orders." Tseng was playing with one pumpkin in front of him, turning the light on and off. "We have a boss, he gives the orders here."
Reno knew exactly how he felt.
"We need to find his weak spot."
"Does he have a weak spot?"
"Everybody has."
"I have an idea." Reno pushed his chair back and stood up.
"That never ends well." Rude was already following. "Where are you going?" he was trying to keep up.
"Get back to others, I need to do this alone."
"Do what… Oh, this is a very bad idea!" Rude stopped him in the middle of the corridor. "You are going to her, aren't you?"
Reno nodded.
"You will ask her to be a double agent, she will never play against him."
"We don't know that."
"Reno, listen" the other man pushed him to the window, far from people's eyes and ears. "You said it yourself, Akane is loyal to her creator, and now she thinks he turned her back out of the goodness of his heart. She is dangerous, remember? Still can't control herself."
"So we have an enemy in her face, is that what you are telling me?"
"You can't trust her, that's what I'm telling you."
A smile came on his face, illogical, conspiratorial.
"And who said I trust her?"
Rude was looking after him with a very bad feeling. Reno's talent to get in trouble and a mutant, led by a half god, what could ever possibly go wrong?
In the late afternoon Rufus called Reno at his office.
"What is it, sir?" red haired stood before the black desk.
"Your report for the week's progress, also a few more things I would like to discuss with you."
President was restrained, as always, calm, reasonable. Reno was the complete opposite.
"Not good." Rufus was checking the loss of energy. "Still better than another reactor being blown away."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying you acted recklessly, but we are holding it for now."
Reno was sure that was not what he wanted to say.
"Do you know what's the hardest thing about being in charge, Reno?"
He shook his head.
"Not being responsible for others, but for your own actions. I hoped you already knew that when I put you in charge."
Reno realized he messed it up. Too late.
"I know you are acting for the common good, I never thought you would start getting selfish or proud, I have known you since forever."
"But?"
"But Genesis is not a good person. He wants to save the planet, Reno, not us. Not the life on it. He was born as a monster and creates more monsters. And one of them is among us again."
Red haired gasped.
"Rude…" he looked away.
"It should be you telling me she's back, not your partner. You know the Turk's mission, the first and most important thing is the task, and that's not by chance. World is about to collapse again."
"You know why I did this." Reno's eyes had a warlike spark when he decided to talk. "We sent him to hell like three times and he almost destroyed the city. I never meant to trust him, we needed time."
"But you trust Akane." Still calm, said Rufus.
"No, I don't."
"Don't lie to me. You can't talk to her not because you hate her. I need to know your actions won't be affected by this girl and the dominance Genesis has on her."
Reno smiled, but his smile wasn't caused by happiness.
"When I ever failed you? I devoted my life to this company, it's all I have."
Rufus had to trust him. The last thing he needed now was sending someone to babysit his best Turk.
Orders for the day were to split in two groups and one try to eliminate the enemy army at sector 4, the other to get inside the sealed reactor and set at least one channel to work again. Since it has to be done quietly and fast, Rufus sent the Turks, not Soldier. Rude was in a group with Tseng, Elena went with Reno.
"Tell me again the purpose of this" they were trying to pass through one very narrow hole in the ruined wall, which left dust and dirt all around their uniform. Already inside the dark cave Elena starts cleaning it with a very annoyed expression on her face.
"Back" he said and she turned so he could clean her back. "One channel will provide energy for at least thirty houses and stop people complaining. And won't arouse suspicion. If we succeed… Well, we will see."
"I hope Rude and Tseng are doing better than us." She turned her flashlight on and put a mask on her face.
"They for sure are having fun now."
Half an hour passed till they managed to reach the corridor. Here they literally were between the raw ground and the corpus, searching for an emergency exit to get in. It was dark, dirty, cold, water from underground sources was coming from the soil and making pools, they had no other option but to step on, so their shoes got muddy and water came inside.
"Not the job I wanted for the day" Elena said, her voice muted by the mask."Are we clo… Oh my god!"
Reno, who was a few steps forward, checking the path brought his weapon lightning fast and looked around.
"What?"
Space was too small for anybody else to enter, but if someone followed them…
"A rat." Girl was covering her mouth like she was about to throw up.
"Be grateful it didn't mutate."
That got his mind back to Akane, which made his mood even worse. He kept opening a path, dust and soil raining on him, at some point he was about to give up and offer to turn back and try another way, when a half buried door could be seen fifty meters ahead.
"We got it!"
Elena rushed forward, got her foldable tool and started digging to uncover the door.
Reno got something in mind, turned his phone camera and took a photo of her.
"What are you doing? Help me here!"
"Perfect Halloween picture. Green glow of the mako, rats and ghosts around, six feet under."
"Not a Halloween fan." Elena almost reached the bottom, but the top was sealed by the ruined ceiling.
"You don't have a sense of humor." Reno got the shovel from her hands, trying to unstick the door.
"I'm all humor!" she left muddy print on her mask and pushed the door, some more dust fell from the ceiling.
"I swear, I'm starting to have enough of this!" Reno was hitting the prop that got on the way with the shovel.
"You moved it." Elena mocked him.
"You wanna try?"
The time they were nagging with each other the prop broke and the ceiling started shaking.
"Get down!"
The entire tunnel collapsed.
"They should send us as usual." Rude was covering Tseng's back, who still had that ghost on his costume, and now trying to shoot at one of the corrupted Soldiers from his cover.
"You have a problem with my company?" black haired man asked.
"I have a problem with Reno and Elena digging into that reactor alone, not much horsepower in her, and Reno is known as a magnet for trouble."
"Even them can do such a simple mission. Since the kid managed it…"
They were spotted, so they had to clean the enemy as fast as they can. Tseng came first, Rude covering his back and five of them fell dead. Both men stood back to each other and abandoned the clean work, since twenty more appeared from all sides.
"I already know what my Halloween costume would be" Rude ran and hid behind the next building, which gave him good sight at the south, he took down two more and gave a sign to Tseng to get in the open.
"Little red riding hood?" Tseng jokes.
"Nah, that's Reno costume."
Tseng rolled on the ground to the next cover and shot another troop.
"Seriously, where do they keep coming from?" Tseng got his second gun and started cross fire. "I hope Reno and Elena have more luck."
Back at the reactor, no sign of life could be seen. Water was still strolling down the ruined walls, getting rusty and green, the tunnel that Turks passed in was completely ruined. Door was still there, unable to reach.
Reno woke up realizing the heavy ground was buried there, he couldn't move from it. The only reason he wasn't dead was the prop that stuck over his head, otherway the weight would smash his head.
Reno tried to take a breath, mask was still on his face so he managed to do it, pain cut his chest.
"Elena? Elena!"
No answer. Reno tried to move and the ground kept collapsing.
"Rude, one time I'll need you and you won't be here."
Red haired wasn't the one to panic, he started digging, centimeter by centimeter to reach his pocket. It took him maybe half an hour, he almost ran out of air. Couldn't use his phone, the only thing he could do was the shield. He had two of them. Two would for sure remove the ground upon them, but then it would collapse again. Better use them in a row.
Terrible crack followed the activating of the first shield, ground literally exploded and got him on his back. Now he realized his injuries but had no time for that. A few steps forward, half buried, was Elena's body.
Reno managed to get up. Shield upon his head was giving up and soil falling faster and faster through its cracks. Reno reached his colleague and without checking on her, dragged her to the door.
"Come on. Open. Please open!"
Door was stuck and the first shield was almost dead. Reno covered his head and Elena, and threw the other one to the door. Turning on, a portable shield shattered the door and he managed to get himself and her inside before the tunnel collapsed again.
"We are done here." Tseng put his gun down and both left the place. Not a single enemy survived, and they were almost untouched.
"Let's see what those two are doing."
"Wasting time on that reactor."
Going back to the car Rude called but there was no signal.
"Inside the reactor there's probably no connection."
Half an hour later back at the base he called again.
"This is strange."
"It's not strange, it's normal. Leave them to do their job."
Tseng went to report and went back to his apartment. Rude wasn't convinced. He knew his partner and decided to head to the reactor to see for himself they were fine.
Back there Reno collapsed on the ground and removed his mask, taking deep breaths, he thought he would never allow himself that luxury again. His back hurts, nothing broken this time. Reno managed to turn on some light and check on Elena.
Her face was pale, right hand twisted in a strange way, probably broken, she was unconscious.
"Come on, girl, don't do this. You need to come back."
Reno put his hand under her head and tried again.
"Come on, Elena. Come on!" he shook her, checked her pupils, and there was no reaction.