Shin-Ra Employee #4127

Chapter One

Just a normal day. Just another bloody normal day.

I pushed the key into the lock, bumping the door with my hip as it turned. When eventually the door gave, I burst in, and chucked my rod into the corner of the room, looking at it regretfully. The monsters were getting worse all the time, and you literally couldn’t go anywhere without ‘protection’. I gave my shoddy staff another stare, before turning away. Yeah, real use it was, with its one slot filled with an All Materia. Yes, I know - completely pointless, but a maxed out All could fetch a good price, and I’d found it with three stars laying in an alley all by its self.

Well, I couldn’t just leave it there now, could I?

Grumpily I threw myself down into the office chair, and mashed in a user name and password.

“Welcome employee #4127.”

“Welcome yourself bitch,” I replied to the screen, punching in a few more buttons. “and the name’s Katy.”

I rummaged around the desk drawer for something to eat, but found nothing. Slamming the drawer shut, I returned my gaze to the computer, and double clicked the e-mail shortcut.

“You have 1132 new messages.”

With a moan, I pushed my head into my hands. It doesn’t take much to guess where I worked. Shin-Ra Electrical Company - complaints department.

The truth is, I knew who the Materia belonged to. It certainly wasn’t mine, no matter how legally I’d ‘stolen’ it. There was a reason I’d got a one slot weapon, and it wasn’t because I was a master summoner. In fact, noble though my idea maxing it out was, and witnessing some Materia-genesis, it was not practical. The likelihood of my gaining enough experience from my run-ins with sewer rats to even put an extra sparkle in the stone was next to none. So why didn’t I give it back?

Because then he’d know I was following him.

I’m not sure when it was I first met him, or rather, them. Perhaps a couple of months ago, perhaps longer. I was still new to the company then, new to Midgar even, and I was as stupid as they come. The first time I even realised what the term ‘plate’ meant was when I stepped out of the train and saw it above my head. It stretched as far as the eye could see, as though the whole of Midgar was in some kinda giant metal beast’s stomach. For the first time I realised what I was letting myself in for, and I almost nearly turned back. But you see, I couldn’t. My family were depending on whatever money I could earn there.

So I took the first reasonable job that came up. I say ‘reasonable’, but what I mean is honest. I’d been offered loads of stuff before that, prostitution mostly. I refused - and not just cause I’m a country girl at heart. I believe there’s a code of ethics out there, and if you don’t obey it, you’re in for trouble.

Anyway, this job I took, as you’ve probably have guessed, was the one at Shin-Ra Inc. - ‘complaints secretary for Coral district’. Now, if you know anything at all, you’d interrupt me at this point and say ‘But Katy, working for Shin-Ra ain’t at all honest’. Look - if I knew then what I know now, I’d never had taken it. I get enough stories through my inbox every day to make me wanna bust out of here for good. But like I said, I’ve got kid brothers and sisters to support, and although the Gil wasn’t good, it was better than nothing.

So, I settled down to work, blissfully believing that Shin-Ra was no more than a greedy power company... how green can you get?! It wasn’t long before I was informed by some of the other girls on my level that Shin-Ra was up to more than that. You don’t hear much about it out in the country, but there’s a whole lot more to the company than Mako reactors. Their science program for example - a guy named Professor Hojo and his team, the ones who discovered how to harness Mako energy, were definitely onto something. Most the girls seemed to admire Hojo, as if he was some kinda God of intelligence or something, but I spotted him hanging around reception once and... Now don’t get me wrong - I’m not claiming to be physic or anything, but there was something distinctly evil about him. I can sense these things sometimes.

However I felt though, a science team isn’t too an irrational thing for a power company to have - in fact it's essential if they’re going to make any kind of progress - but did they really need their own private army? Yes, I am talking about SOLDIER, The ‘Great Sephiroth’ included. I know all the stories say that Shin-Ra were simply sponsoring SOLDIER, and helping them out after the war by giving them Mako infusions - but I’m telling you, I knew right from the start that that wasn’t all there was to tell. Complete access to the Shin-Ra HQ, running along on missions to restore power to Mako reactors... am I making my point? In my opinion, President Shinra had them right under his wing. They were his, to do anything he liked with, and he didn’t care who knew about it. I often wondered if any his ‘soldiers’ went off on missions to North Coral. I was under instruction to report any incidences of rebellion to my superior. ‘Safety regulations’ apparently. But who’s safety I wonder?

Anyway, this isn’t anything to do with the All Materia I’d recently acquired. At least I hope not... you see President Shinra had a son, and his son had some friends... but I’d better tell this story in the right order.

Now, I hope you won’t think I’m terribly lazy when I tell you this, because it involves a lift, and the fact that I worked on the second floor. Yes I know - I could have gone up the stairs, most of my friends did, but they were just so cold, and although I only had to go up a couple of flights, they seemed to go on up forever, and it made my head spin just thinking about it. So in order to avoid feeling sick before I even started reading my mail, I took the lift.

Usually I shared the short journey with a couple of other higher ranking secretaries, and occasionally the odd business man, stepping off at level sixty. They all had keycards of course, and just the thought of them hanging around at the lift entrance swiping them all made me giggle.

Anyway, this particular day I walked into the reception to see a nearly full load going off. I ran to catch it, but missed by seconds. I resigned myself to wait for it to come back, but someone behind me shot their arm out, and stopped the doors from shutting. Usually, I’d expect the people in the lift to get really pissed off at this, but to my surprise, they all mumbled apologies and got out the lift, pushing past me.

Now it just so happened that it was raining on that day, and I was soaked through, and looking rather bedraggled I assume. Either way, the point is, since Shin-Ra couldn’t be bothered to heat anything below the fortieth level properly (and it's not like they were short on power!) I’d taken the care to install an old heater in my office that plugged into the mains. It smelt, but it worked, and I was rather eager to get back to it and dry off. So, for better or worse, I decided that despite whoever it was behind me, I was going to get into that lift. So taking a deep breath, and hoping that I was only shivering because of the cold, I stepped in and turned around to see who it was.

In that moment, I’m still not sure whether I was relieved, or very, very afraid. I was relieved because I didn’t recognise him, so it wasn’t like I’d barged in front of Sephiroth or anything. He was looking at me with a slightly bemused smile, one eyebrow cocked, and he didn’t look very angry. His eyes though green, I noticed, were not Mako infused.

However, this wasn’t much to go on given the rest of his appearance. The first thing I noticed (other than his eyes) was his hair - the craziest mop of red stuff I ever saw in my life - he even had a ponytail. Pushed up somewhere amongst it was a pair of goggles of all the things! He had a uniform, but not only was it totally different to mine, he was wearing it totally differently too. He wore it as though it as though it were his rather than Shin-Ra’s, and he could do what he liked with it. I’m sure the cut of jacket was too long, too flamboyant, and the trousers too baggy. However the fact that the two top buttons of his shirt were undone was the ultimate in disrespect for me. If I did that, I’d be fired straight away for looking like a slut, although I’m sure that’s precisely what the female uniform was designed for anyway. So here was a guy who not only wore his uniform like it was his identity, he was also not going to get sacked for it.

That, and the fact he held a keycard for the seventieth level in his left hand was what made me really, really afraid.

For a moment that seemed like an age we just stood there and stared at each, neither of us moving. I know I should have admitted my mistake and run for it, but somehow I just couldn’t. It was as if everything I lived and worked for depended on me bluffing that I was just as important as he was. I stuck my chin up into the air, and praying to dear God he wouldn’t kill me on the spot, I asked;

“Going up?”

He looked at me for another couple of seconds, and then shrugged. He stepped forward into the lift, and with perfect timing the doors shut behind him. He nodded.

“You?”

From behind his back he brought out his right hand, and for the first time I realised exactly why the others, though bigshots themselves, were so keen to get out. In it he held loosely a short rod, much thinner than mine. With a smile he twirled it expertly, revealing the six pairs of slots in the side, and I spotted at least two red orbs.

I gulped visibly.

“Second floor.” I replied, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. He laughed slightly, as though in disbelief and mashed two. I tried not to notice the way he keyed in seventy afterwards. Anyone with clearance to that level had to live up on the plate, where there were no monsters. What in Hellheim’s name did he have that rod for? I guess he caught me looking at it, because he turned, and held it out towards me.

“It's an Electro-Mag Rod.” he stated blandly “Hell of a lot better than what you’ve got there. This baby can electrocute a Dragon before you could even blink.”

I raised my eyebrows, and tried to look interested rather than shit-scared.

“Oh really?”

“Yeah...” he turned away.

The doors chimed, and opened onto level two.

“Well, um, this is my stop.” I said, trying to put a hint of cheerfulness in my voice. “Thanks for... pushing the button and everything.”

“My pleasure.” he replied as I walked out, sounding amused. “Say, um...” I turned round, and his eyes flicked to my name tag. “4127?”

“Yeah?” I replied, my face crossing with worry.

“I like you, you’ve got guts. Don’t lose that.”

“Uh, thanks.” I replied, feeling the beginnings of a smile form on my lips. As the lift doors shut, I spotted him winking at me, and he was gone, the lift shooting up to the top level.

“Oh. My. God.” I heard the voice of Tina, the girl from the office next to mine, behind me. “Reno of the Turks likes you.”

I turned around.

“Reno of the what?!”

I know what you’re thinking. How the hell did I not know who Reno was? Well apparently he and the other Turks had been around for quite some time, but everyone had thought it so obvious that they never bothered to tell me. However, what made Tina think I was really dense not to realise who he was, was the fact he’d been on the TV practically all night. On the news channel - which I wouldn’t even watch even if I did have a television set. Shin-Ra practically owned the program, and the whole thing was just one long lesson in propaganda. As soon as she realised she couldn’t make me understand just who it was I’d been sharing breathing space with, she dragged me up to the rec. room to watch the bulletin still spinning around.

“So you see,” she explained. “Rufus was up on the top of the building - God knows why, when this guy in the ‘copterú shot at him. It's a good job Reno was up there, or he could have been hurt. Reno just took one look at him, and burned the guy to Hell with a Fire spell.”

I watched as I saw the scene played out before my eyes, the words ‘this is a reconstruction’ scrolling along the bottom of the screen.

“What was Reno doing up there? Where’s the remains of the helicopter?”

“Katy! You’re not listening at all!” she scolded me, “Reno is a Turk - guys who hunt out candidates for SOLDIER,- but that ain’t the half of it! They’d kill their own mothers for a bit of Gil. These guys are as good as it gets, and they’ll do anything for Rufus.”

“So?” I replied, still eyeing the screen suspiciously, “What about the ‘copter, they clean it up that quick?”

“Hello - Earth to Employee #4127!” Tina’s face appeared in front of mine, blocking out the screen, as she spoke slowly and deliberately “Reno likes you. Rufus likes Reno. Rufus Shinra is the son of the President and the most gorgeous man alive.” she threw her hands up into the air in despair. “What are you still doing here!”

It was a good point. I gave the screen one last glare, and looked away.

“He was just being polite Tina.”

With that, I turned away and walked back down the corridor to my office.

So, that’s how I first met Reno, but it still doesn’t explain when or why I was following him, or how I got my hands on some of his All Materia. Over the next few days I heard an awful lot about the Turks, both over the net, and on the telly in the rec. room. It was like once I noticed they were there, they would never go away. Or was there more to it than that? Whatever it was, they were awfully hyped up. There were three of them, from what I could work out, Reno, his bald friend Rude, and a scary looking guy called Tseng. It was never explicitly stated, but you could tell he was their leader. Just something about the air with which he stood next to the President, looking as if he owned the place rather than Shinra himself. The media claimed they were acting as bodyguards, but if I knew Shin-Ra, yet again, there was more to it.

And what the Hell happened to that damn chopper? I asked around the offices, but nobody knew what happened to it. I’m sorry, but a flaming helicopter does not fall past your office building without somebody noticing! Yet still, there was absolutely no sign of it. More propaganda? Quite likely, but what the Hell for?

A few weeks later, and I’d been having a really rough day. I’d received over fifty e-mails or more just from one guy claiming that the company had murdered his family. A horrible thought, and I couldn’t attribute that to anyone, not even Shin-Ra inc. I had patiently replied to him explaining the incident was an accident (I don’t even know if that was a lie or not) and advising him to let the matter be. I could tell from the address that he wasn’t in Coral anymore, but Midgar. I seriously hoped he took my advice, cause it wouldn’t be hard for Shin-Ra to send a couple of guards his way if I had to report him. Still, at about three o’clock he stopped after sending a particularly abusive e-mail, telling me exactly where I could go since I didn’t care about innocent lives. ‘Freakin stone cold Shin-Ra bitch’ he called me. I’ve never forgotten those words my whole life.

Anyway, by the time I clocked off at six, I was damn tired, and bloody hungry. I took the lift as usual, people giving me a wide birth after my ‘chat’ with Reno. I sighed irritably - I’d said like, what two whole sentences to him? Still - it got people to leave me alone, and that’s what I wanted.

I stepped outside the Shin-Ra building, and yet again it was raining. I pulled on my big black coat, and looking more like a prostitute than anything else, I set down the street, the rich people looking at me as though I were something dirty. It was like a whole other world up there, the brightly coloured shopping malls, the clean streets. There were very few cars, but the ones there were weren’t cheap. Jaguars, and the like, you know what I mean. As I passed yet another flowering roundabout, I neared the train station.

“Nearly home.” I comforted myself “At least under the plate it won’t be raining.”

As I stepped off the train after the last security check, I shook my head at my previous statement.

“Sector Seven - home sweet home. It never rains but it leaks.”

True to my word, the entire place was damp and dark, water falling down in steady torrents in certain places. Avoiding them, I made my way home, before stopping suddenly in the middle of the street. I was tired, I was hungry, and I was wet, and the home I was going hadn’t been supplied electricity for the past couple of days, the fault of the same damn company I worked for. How well I knew there was no point in complaining! So instead I turned to the left, and towards the local bar. I knew it wasn’t a wise idea, especially in uniform, but I wanted some hot food, and I knew the girl there could cook up a damn good meal. Ripping off my name tag in an attempt to disguise the fact I worked for Shin-Ra, I banged my way through the salon style doors.

I sat down at the corner table, fidgeting as the rest of the regular patrons stared at me over their beer mugs. I caught a couple of words like ‘Shin-Ra sleaze’ and ‘scum’ echoing around, and I rolled my eyes. Did they simply expect me not to work? I knew from experience that if I came here in normal clothes they left me alone. Why was I so different now?

I glanced up at the TV, recognising on it the only channel not monopolised by Shin-Ra. I sighed, maybe coming here wasn’t such a good idea - it was obviously some kind of meeting place for the more disgruntled of Shin-Ra’s customers. Still, I’m not one to back out of a situation, so noticing I still hadn’t been served, I got up and walked over to the bar. There was nobody there, but from inside the kitchen the black-haired girl called out,

“Just a minute!” She finished drying her hands, and came out, a smile on her face. “Yes?”

“Any chance of getting a fish n chips round here?”

“I’m sorry.” she replied, sounding genuine “but I was really busy...” she trailed off as she caught sight of a big black man sidling up behind me.

“Maybe you should leave.” he growled at me gruffly.

I turned around to give him a piece of my mind, but snapped my mouth quickly shut when I noticed just how big he was.

“Maybe you should be the one who leaves.”

The confident voice sounded out from somewhere behind the man, and as he turned, I got a clear view of the speaker. It was Reno, and despite myself my heart leaped up, but sank back down again rapidly when I remembered how extremely dangerous the man was. The black man obviously got the same idea, because he nodded a farewell to the girl behind the bar and left.

I sat staring at Reno, and his bald accompaniment for a moment, before turning back, and inquiring.

“So the fish and chips?”

“Coming.” she replied, and as she left, I could tell she was trembling. Were the Turks really that bad? As Reno came and sat up beside me and signalled for three drinks, I guessed I was about to find out. I stared into mine, and told it rather thoughtfully -

“I could have handled that myself, y’know.”

“No doubt.” the Turk at my side replied without even turning his head. “But I wanted to make sure that black guy left alive. Could have jeopardised my mission.”

I looked at him curiously.

“Mission?” Why was he telling me this? He smiled, and leant closer towards me, his green eyes sparkling, his breath telling me this wasn’t his first drink of the evening.

“Yeah - my mission, to get my friend Rude here a date with yonder landlady.”

He gestured wildly at the black-haired girl, before slapping his friend on the back, making him choke on his drink.

I glanced from the beautiful young girl, to the blushing bald Turk and back again. I gave Reno a serious stare.

“I think you should abort.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Get out while you still can - you’re in enough trouble as it is.”

He grinned stupidly, leaning on the bar.

“You trying to threaten me?”

“Might be.”

Reno rolled his eyes, obviously tiring of the game. He shot down another glass of whatever it was he was drinking.

“Nah - you’re just a cocky secretary from level two.”

Without meaning to I replied,

“A stone-cold Shin-Ra bitch.”

“What do you mean by that?”

It was my turn to blush, and I looked away quickly.

“Oh nothing.” I replied “Just something somebody, ‘said’ to me today...”

He shrugged, and looked away sadly, frowning.

“Well that’s the blessing of working in complaints department.” I looked up at him curiously “Just gotta take it and, say ‘well my job’s hard, comes with severe emotional stress.’”

“How do you know where I work? Did you look me up?”

At that moment there was a huge crash, and the black man burst in, followed by two other hard looking guys, and a brunette quite literally dressed to kill.

For a moment I just sat there staring at the group. I ran the situation over in my mind - there was no reason for me to think they were going to start anything. All I had done is simply gone into the bar, ordered a meal, and had a drink brought for me. I mean, not even the Turks had done anything, unless you count Rude liking the bartender as something deeply and elementarily wrong, which obviously, this big guy did.

He took a step closer towards the bar. By now, both Rude and I had our hands on our weapons, but Reno was still sat facing the other way, drinking as though nothing was happening.

The big guy leaned towards him, and tapped him on the shoulder with what I assumed was a hand. I gulped when I realised it was, in actual fact, a gun grafted into his arm.

“Turn around.”

Reno swivelled round on his bar stool and gave the guy a drunken smile.

“And what can I do for you?”

“Get lost. Shinra ain’t welcome here.”

“Why’s that?”

A different voice this time. I turned in amazement, realising this was the first time I’d heard Rude speak. He was staring at the man with a cool expression on his face. I suddenly realised that though the bald Turk was stupid looking, but he wasn’t one to mess around with. And why was he suddenly speaking up? I gave Reno a questioning look - what if he wasn’t kidding about them being on a mission?

The black guy raised his gun arm.

“Get out.”

Reno slammed his glass onto the table.

“Or what?” he replied pushing up his sleeves. “You can’t resist against the Shinra.”

“Oh yeah?” the brunette strutted forward holding up a gun. “Well I’ve got a surprise for buddy - you can’t keep the common people of Midgar down for long. We’ll rise up against you one day, and mpmfff...”

I looked on in surprise, as one of the guys roughly clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Shuddup you little idiot!” he whispered harshly into her ear. I spotted Rude giving Reno a look, and the red head nodded. He swaggered forward slightly, slapping the black man on the shoulder.

“Well I’d love to stay and chat, n all, but I can see you’re a very busy man and...”

“Get the fuck off me!” the man snarled and pushed Reno roughly. He staggered backwards, and banged his head sharply on the bar. I leapt up to my feet at the sound of bone cracking against wood. Beneath me, the Turk swore and, and shook his head.

“I shouldn’t have done if I were you...”

Before I knew what was happening, Reno was back on his feet, and one of the guys was down. I covered my mouth in horror, backing away. This was going to be a bar brawl, and I was stuck in the middle of it! I’d spent my entire time here in Midgar desperately trying to avoid this very situation. With what I hoped was discretion I made my way to the exit, only to be swept up by the guy who had silenced the brunette.

“Oh no you don’t!” he growled, twisting my arm behind my back, and making me cry out. Within seconds Rude was at my side. He swept his gun down and smacked it against the back of the guy’s head. I stared in horror at the man lying slumped at my feet. I gave Rude a look of pure shock.

“Look what you did!!”

He shrugged and said nothing, pushing my rod into my hands. I looked at it in disgust - there was no way I was gonna use it on another human being. Fortunately I was never given the chance, as a blinding flash lit up the entire room. Reno was going head to head with the black guy, and had given him a taste of his Electro-Mag Rod. I stared at the guy hunched over in pain, and then up to the girl behind the bar, screaming her friend’s name over and over again.

“Barret... Barret!!”

I’m not entirely sure what happened next. All I remember was the feeling of insane dread washing over me. Barret Wallace - the guy in Midgar who had e-mailed me. The one who claimed Shin-Ra murdered his family. I let out a little wail of despair - it seems illogical now, but back then I was convinced he knew who I was, and he was trying to kill me. I vaguely remember the black haired girl attempting to fight Rude away from her friend, but he stepped back before she had the chance to connect any of her blows. He looked distinctly upset. The next thing I knew, Reno was shouting in my face. I shook my head not understanding.

“Run, you stupid cow - run!”

As I still stood there motionless, he sighed, grabbed me, and chucked me over his shoulder. We run out of the bar, me being bashed up and down. I couldn’t help but notice the Turk was running perfectly well - a moment ago he’d been falling-down drunk.

“What’s going on?” I queried nervously, my voice bouncing up and down as I was bashed about as he ran.

“Shut up.” he silenced me. I sighed at the answer.

“Shut up? You just blasted Mr. Wallace, and you tell me to shut up - isn’t it bad enough his family’s dead?”

Reno jerked to a stop, and I fell down, head over heels.

“What did you say?”

Shit. Double shit. I suddenly realised that no one had mentioned his surname, and I’d just given away that I knew perfectly well who he was. Over fifty e-mails was more than enough to warrant a reporting, but I’d kept my mouth shut because I felt sorry for him. The guys standing over me were goddamn Turks, for goodness’ sake, they were not my friends. I was so dead.

“Err, no-nothing.” I replied, sticking what I hoped was an innocent smile on my face. Play it dumb Katy, I told myself slowly, play it dumb and no one will suspect.

“If you know anything about this guy, it's of the uttermost importance that you tell me. I swear to you that you’ll not get into any trouble for it...”

Rude tapped his friend on the shoulder, stopping him mid-speech, and pointed over behind me. One of the guys from the bar was taking pursuit; despite the fact the girl was calling him back.

“Deal with it.” Reno replied, not a hint of concern in his voice. He turned to me, leading me away with a hand on my back. “Look 4127, I’ll...”

I gave him a glare.

“That’s not my name.”

“How about Four-One?” he gave me a sheepish smile, all friendly now I knew something. “I’ll drop by your office next thing tomorrow morning to talk about it. Look here’s my card.” He pushed a piece of stiff board into my hand.

“I’m busy.”

He sighed, and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Look I really don’t think you understand how important this is...”

“No, I don’t!” I shouted back, forcing tears into my eyes. “I don’t understand anything that’s going on - I overreacted that’s all. Just ask anyone one on my level and they’ll confirm I’m crazy!”

I turned away, hoping that little performance would put him off, but obviously I underestimated the Turk. He stooped to pick something up of the ground, and he passed it to me. A flower. I took it out of shear curiosity - there were no plants growing this side the plate anywhere. It was muddy, and slightly trampled, obviously dropped by someone in a hurry, but I stoked its pink petals gently.

“Putting on the charm is gonna get you nowhere when I know don’t know anything.”

“No” he said slowly “You’re cleverer than that.” I looked up at him quizzically. “What are you doing down on level two?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but the sound of trampling feet from behind stopped me. It was Rude, followed by the guy from the bar. Reno gave his friend a look, but a shrug was all the answer he got. He turned back to me.

“You’ve gotta go now Four-One. Just get out of the area, and Rude and I will cover you. I’ll call by next morning.”

With that, he and Rude dashed off, the guy in hot pursuit. I watched for a moment, clinging the flower to my chest. I looked at it, then back up to where the Turks disappeared into the distance. There was no way I was giving them any information without knowing precisely what was going on. They weren’t in that bar because Rude had a crush on any girl. They were spying on someone. Without a second thought I tucked the flower into my coat pocket, and brought out my rod.

And that’s how I decided to follow them.

It was a foolish move, really. My house was over half a sector away, and I hadn’t a clue about the layout of any of the alleyways I was following them down. Still I kept on going doggedly, determined to get to the bottom of it. It never occurred to me what on earth I would do if I discovered anything terrible about Shin-Ra. Suddenly I realised the group had stopped running, and were facing each other in a junction between two pathways. I ducked behind a dustbin without making a noise. It’s a strange skill I possess, not being able to be detected. I still can’t explain it, not even now. Anyway, it looked as though they were facing up for a fight, the guys fists were raised, and both Rude and Reno had their weapons out. The former turned to his red headed companion.

“You sure he’s not important?”

“I’m sure. Waste him.”

“But Tifa will...”

“Fuck Tifa!” Reno gave the bald Turk a glare. “You’ve got absolutely no chance - so will you please just forget it!”

Reno held out his Mag-Rod, let go of it, and it hovered in the air. Behind the dustbin I tensed up. He was gonna use some Materia. I’d never seen it working before, and some kind of morbid curiosity overcame me that I couldn’t understand. I moved for a better view, while Reno carried on speaking.

“You’re forgetting that the only thing that matters is the Turks, and that is all.”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Rude replied quietly.

“Huh.” Reno sneered, then, “Hey, where are you going!”

The guy from the bar stopped running away, and turned to face them.

“You wanna fight?” he replied, raising his fists “Then shut up and do it.”

Reno cocked his head to one side, and grinned.

“Okay.”

He smacked his fists together; his rod glowed green for a moment, then a huge bolt of lightning leapt out of the sky. I threw myself out of the way and underneath a pile of rubbish bags. This was no ordinary lightning at all, and I could feel the plastic around me melting. An eerie purple light filled my eyes, and the electricity continued crackling for a while. Then all was quiet, and all I could detect was the stench of burnt flesh. There was a moment’s pause then,

“Shit, I lost one!”

“Shut up you idiot! Everything always has to be impressive with you doesn’t it? That Bolt must have alerted the low life from miles around. Leave it and run.”

Reno obviously saw the sense in that, because all I heard was their quickly retreating steps.

When I was sure they were finally gone, I pulled myself up out of the refuse to take a look at the damage.

I had to bite back the feeling nausea that crept through my body.

He was dead. I don’t why I doubted that, but it was still a shock to see him laying there, the burnt remains of his face still registering surprise. I moved towards him, but fell, tripping over what I realised was his leg. Then I really was sick, all the while trembling.

Reno had killed him. He had killed a man. An innocent life taken, just like that. He hadn’t had to do it, he could have just knocked him out. What was it he said - ‘only the Turks matter’? He said this guy wasn’t important. Well, no matter what it was he and his friend were on to, I wanted none of it. Right there and then, I swore that I would never speak to Reno of the Turks ever again. Yes he was a friend of Rufus Shinra, and dammit if he wasn’t cute in his own way too, but right then I thought I could never hate a man more than I did him. I’d call in sick tomorrow, Reno would get bored of chasing it up, and that would be the end to it.

A noble idea, but it seemed fate wouldn’t have any of it. As I turned to leave, my booted foot brushed against a sphere on the ground, and it rolled away down the alley. Full of curiosity, I gave chase and picked it up. It was a slightly clear, iridescent blue, that emitted a glow that intensified when I held it in my hand. A shiver passed through me. I knew it was an All Materia, for no other Support was quite this colour. I gazed into it, the same fascination overcoming me again. As I stood there, looking at it, I knew that I would go into work tomorrow, and that I would meet with Reno. I knew what I wanted.

I wanted Mako.