Every Now and Then
Chapter 10: Phantoms
To: Energy Research Committee, Shinra Power Company, Midgar
From: Dr. Kionae Umeshi
Re: Mako Fountain Study, Week 24
Work continues on schedule, despite the difficulties incurred in the beginning of the project. Our facility has been completed, and all equipment has arrived. Our laboratory is fully functional, and Drs. Farwith and Rigo have initiated the first of a series of experiments dealing with the effects of the fountain on proccessed materia, such as that used by military personel for spellcasting.
Of particular interest is the phenomenon we have only recently observed, which Dr. Farwith has tentatively termed “Absorption”. The use of materia spheres in close proximity to the fountain, especially high level (“mastered”) materia, results in the complete destruction of the crystalline framework of the sphere and the release of a visible wave of pure Mako energy. Once freed from the bonds of its natural crystal structure, this energy is almost immediately drawn toward the fountain, which, as far as we have been able to determine, absorbs it.
We are currently testing various substances in an attempt to capture the stray Mako energy that is released by the Absorption process. However, our success has been extremely limited. The energy is drawn toward the fountain with such force that it is conducted directly through most materials. At this time the only substance it seems to have difficulty passing through is mithril. In an average 82.7% of the experiments conducted, the energy has superheated the mithril test sheeting to the point of partial melting before passing through and into the fountain, thus slowing the travel time by an average of 7.1%.
We believe that with enough study, this phenomenon may be instrumental in cost-effective method of harnessing Mako energy, as it requires almost no effort to release said energy. We will continue our attempts to develop a procedure for capturng and channeling Mako through the use of absorption.
As this was not an expected development, we are lacking some of the equipment which we believe may prove vital to success in this area of our research. It is for this reason that…
———-
“And then she goes on to ask for more money from Shin-ra, blah, blah, blah…” Yuffie said, looking up from the page.
“Great… So I take it that means using materia down here is pretty much out of the question. So much for a nice simple Cure spell to solve all our medical problems,” Reno grumbled, absently wiping the blood from Elena’s temple with his sleeve.
“S’ok… I’m fine…” Elena said, sounding far from fine. Her voice had a dazed, sleepy edge to it, and her eyes were unfocused and dreamy. Reno snorted.
“Yeah. Right, Elena. Rude, stay with her. The rest of us are gonna find Strife, drag his spikey ass out of wherever the fuck he’s been hiding, and then we’re going home.”
“…” Rude nodded.
———-
Tifa led the way down the hall, flashlight in hand. Unlike the rest of the building, whose musty rooms and cobweb strewn halls left a person with a distinct impression of desolate loneliness, this level had the unnerving, unnaturally clean smell that she usually associated with hospitals. Yuffie was directly behind her, walking with her arms at an odd angle as she tried to read farther in the log book by the perhipheral glow of Tifa’s flashlight.
“So now listen to this…” said Yuffie, “It’s from her personal log. ‘Kris is missing. She has been working late into the night all week, and this morning she was gone. Terran and Lorn haven’t seen her, nor have any of the lab assistants. I’m hoping that she’s just gone out to look for surface vents of the fountain again, but I can’t help but feel that something is very, very wrong. I haven’t said anything up until now, but it’s happening more frequently lately. Sometimes I find myself in parts of the lab, with no recollection of how I got there. And I’m seeing things. One minute they’re there, and the next they’re gone. At first I thought I was going crazy. Old friends… my sister… my grandfather… things from my childhood… But now Terran sees them, too. We spoke with Lorn and the rest of the staff, and they all confessed to having similar experiences. I fear it may be our proximity to the fountain. Some sort of undocumented form of Mako poisoning, perhaps.'”
“Oh, that’s nice to know…” Reno commented dryly from the back of the group. They now found themselves in a large room, the walls of which were lined with computer monitors, microscopes, and a plethora of other equipment that the Turk couldn’t even begin to identify. A large mechanically controlled door decorated the far wall, “So…” he said, coming up directly beside Tifa, “What say we find out what’s behind door number one?”
“We’re looking for Cloud,” she replied, coldly, “With no power, if he’d gone through there, the door would already be open.”
“Assuming he came down here the same way we did.”
“How else would he get down here?” she said, rounding on him.
“Oh come on… Ya really think they built this place without a couple of extra exits, just in case?” Reno replied, arms folded over his chest.
“You know something you’re not telling us, don’t you…” she said, accussingly.
“I’m telling you now, aren’t I!” came Reno’s defensive reply.
“So what… You know the layout of this whole building, is that it? I don’t suppose it ever occurred to you to share that information with Cloud! Maybe we wouldn’t have ended up searching for him if you’d….”
“Cloud saw the same damn files I did! He knows as much about this place as I do… which isn’t a whole hell of a lot, by the way! It’s his own fucking fault he’s lost, anyway! If he hadn’t…” At that point, Reno had to duck a right hook aimed at his head.
“Tifa!” Yuffie cried, moving toward the two of them.
“His fault? It’s your fault he fell through the floor in the first place!”
“My fault? My fault?!”
“Reno! Guys… Cut it out!” Yuffie interjected.
“Yes, your fault, you sad excuse for a human being! You don’t even care that he’s missing!”
“Yeah? So why the fuck am I down here looking for the idiot?! And as I recall, it was your boyfriend who came at me!”
“Well… you started it!”
“The hell I did!”
“Both of you…” Yuffie began, only to be interupted by Tifa.
“You provoked him!”
“So it’s my fault he can’t take a little constructive criticism? I suppose you’re going to blame me for him wandering off instead of staying put LIKE ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN WOULD, as well!”
Tifa lunged, and the world around her seemed to blur. She tackled the Turk, sending them both to the ground, and suddenly they weren’t in the cold, sterile laboratory anymore. They were in a place that Tifa still saw in her nightmares. The warning countdown issued loudly from the console behind her, and through the mesh plating, she could see the small crowd that had remained below the Sector Seven pillar only now beginning to scatter, running for their lives.
“You son of a bitch!” she screamed, her hands now at Reno’s throat, “You worthless piece of Shinra scum! Shut it down before it’s too late!”
The Turk laughed coldly, shaking his head, a sadistic smile upon his lips.
“They’re all going to die,” he said, sounding very pleased with himself. Tifa’s fingers tightened around his throat.
———-
He hit the ground hard, and though he wasn’t taken completely by surprise, he had slightly underestimated her physical strength. What really caught him offguard, however, was fact the moment he hit the floor, he suddenly found that he couldn’t move. His gaze flickered briefly toward his side, where Reno now saw thin tendrils of light snaking their way around his wrists. Then he could feel them encirling his legs… his arms… his waist… Tifa had her hands clamped around his neck so tightly now that his vision was beginning to darken, and when he tried to speak, he couldn’t manage so much as a gasp.
His eyes locked on hers, and what he saw set him on the verge of panic. He knew that look all too well. She wasn’t going to stop… and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it at the moment.
He could just barely see Yuffie out of the corner of his eye, and mouthed her name, but couldn’t manage the slightest sound. His lungs ached now, as he fought desparately to take a breath, but the pressure of Tifa’s fingers on his throat was relentless. He felt her lift his head from the floor, never letting up on her grip, and then slam it back down with a crack that sent spots dancing before his eyes. He needed air… now. Consciousness was fast slipping away. Reno struggled futily against the strange bonds that held him, but with no success.
———-
She wasn’t going to have any luck trying to calm them down. They were both too stubborn. The next thing she knew, Tifa had brought Reno to the floor.
‘Great… This is just what we need…’ Yuffie thought. She was fairly certain Reno wasn’t about to let Tifa win this little battle, and Tifa didn’t look like she was going to let up either. She was almost tempted to simply let them have it out so they could both get it out of their systems. Almost… until she realized that Reno wasn’t fighting back. It took her a moment to figure out why… but then, she spied the tiny filaments of light that seemed to spring straight up from the floor and wrap themselves around the Turk’s limbs, leaving him defenseless.
“TIFA, STOP IT!” Yuffie yelled in alarm, as loud as she could, trying to pry her now-crazed friend’s hands away from Reno’s throat. But Tifa didn’t seem to hear her… In fact, she didn’t seem to notice anything at all, except for Reno. She saw Reno’s lips move in a silent cry for help.
“Tifa! Please!”
Dear Leviathan, the woman was strong. Tifa’s fingers were locked in place, and no amount of effort on Yuffie’s part could get her to let go. By then, the Turk’s eyes had rolled back, and he’d gone positively limp. She knew that if she didn’t do something soon, Reno would be gone.
“Sorry, Tifa,” Yuffie murmured, moving behind her friend and grabbing her in a choke hold, pulling her back, off of Reno as hard as she dared. Once her own airway was in danger, Tifa’s hands immediately let go of the Turk, and clawed frantically at Yuffie’s forearm. She heard Reno draw a strangled breath as she and Tifa carreened over backwards.
———-
She suddenly couldn’t breathe. Her vision blurred for a moment, but then everything came sharply into focus again. The flashlight that had been dropped and abandoned on the ground lit the room with a dull light that left amorphous shadows lingering all around her.
“Yuf… Yuffie… Let… go…” Tifa gasped. And within seconds, she was released. Tifa turned in one fluid movement to face the ninja.
“What are you trying to do, Yuffie?!” she demanded.
“Trying to stop you from killing Reno!” the younger woman retorted, scrambling to her feet and storming passed Tifa and over toward the fallen Turk, “Reno?” She was answered with a soft groan that almost immediately turned into a cough.
“Well, don’t just stand there… Help me get him out of this stuff!” Yuffie said, glancing over her shoulder at Tifa, who seemed to snap out of her initial shock and slowly approached the two of them.
Reno’s eyes were closed, and he was breathing in slow, controlled breaths. Vivid patches of angry red stood out against the pale skin of his neck in a distinctive pattern… but perhaps most disturbing of all was the fact that nearly half of the Turk’s body was encased in a translucent, softly glowing crystalline net… which, unless her eyes were paying tricks on her, Tifa could swear was slowly making its way over the rest of him. Yuffie was deftly working at extracting the Turk from his soon-to-be coccoon.
“Yuffie… W-what just happened?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer, taking up a position on Reno’s left and trying to pry his arm out from beneath the crystal.
“You tried to fucking strangle me, ya psychopath,” Reno answered, his voice raw, “That’s what.”
———-
“Did you hear that?”
“…”
“It sounded like Yuffie…”
“…”
“M-maybe we should go check on them?…”
“… I’m going. You’re staying here.”
Rude cast one last glance back at Elena before rounding the corner and heading off in the direction that Reno and the others had taken. His penlight wasn’t much help in the dark corridor, but at least it was something. A figure suddenly emerged from a doorway up ahead.
“Rude!” Tifa’s voice echoed in the empty hallway, “I was just coming to get you! Reno’s hurt!”
‘Reno’s hurt…’ The words sparked a brief shudder of fear, which Rude quickly clamped down on. He’d heard them many times before, and he always worried. He worried because in his line of work, “hurt” could mean anything from a minor flesh wound to less than a few minutes to live. His fingers coiled around his gun, and drew the weapon, just in case… she hadn’t told him what happened. For all Rude knew, his partner had been attacked.
“This way!” said Tifa, leading him through a long, narrow room lined with tables that held hundreds of different rocks all in labeled trays. Up ahead was a large door that stood partially open. From beyond, came a greenish-blue glow. Rude followed Tifa through the door and found himself in a circular chamber… at the center of which was one of the most beautiful sights he’d ever seen.
It looked like ice, but the room was warm, and within the crystalline depths light danced and swirled. The fountain towered over him, rising at least a couple hundred feet that he could see, branching out all over the room like some massive, translucent tree. Clusters of elongate crystals as big as his arm decorated its base. But Rude didn’t have time to be entranced. Tifa was already making her way around toward the other side of the fountain. He followed close behind, and stopped cold at what he saw then.
Reno was on the floor, his eyes closed in gross immitation of peaceful slumber, blood pooling beneath him. Too much blood. Rude knealt beside him and touched his face. His skin was so pale, and so cold…
“Too late…” he said, the words devoid of emotion, though his mind was screamed with sorrow and rage. How was he going to tell Elena? He rested his forehead against his palm, eyes closed, shaking his head in denial. It wasn’t possible. Reno spent more time in the hospital than any of them. He couldn’t be… be… Reno was always alright in the end.
‘But that’s what you thought about Tseng, too, wasn’t it?’ Rude thought. He felt a warm hand squeeze his shoulder comfortingly. He opened his eyes, expecting to see Tifa, and was greeted instead by light so bright that he had to close them again… And then he was falling…
———-
“You ask too many questions. Give it a rest.”
“You have something better to do, Terran?” the female voice chided, almost teasingly.
“No… I’m just sick of listening to him asking the same questions we’ve been asking ourselves over and over again.”
“Maybe he can think of something we couldn’t…” the other male replied.
“Hn… Yes, he’s had such intelligent things to say up to this point…” the one they’d called Terran scoffed.
“Maybe I’m not an expert, but it’s not like you’ve had any luck!” Cloud finally said in his own defense.
“Ignore him… He’s always rude,” the woman said.
“… Thought I was Rude.”
“Rude?!” Cloud yelped in surprise. He couldn’t see the Turk, not that he really expected to.
“…”
“Rude? Is that you?” he prompted.
“… Yeah.”
“Oh great… More company,” said Terran.
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