He saw below him the city, with all its neon signs and moving headlights, all its technology and glitz. In the distance, there were the pale green flares of the four Mako reactors marking every cardinal direction. He frowned. What he couldn't see, of course, were the things under the plates. Reeve had seen enough of those during his time in the various levels of the Urban Development hierarchy to last him ... well, forever. They were a large part of the reason he'd wanted to be an executive in the system; he just needed to get away from the slums.

"Reeve!" his superior, Kanel, shouted. "Pry yourself away from that window and say hello to the President." Reeve spun, almost tripping over his feet, and sprinted over to the large executive desk. He reached over it, stretching himself all the way, barely managing to take the portly CEO's hand to shake.

"A pleasure to meet you, sir," Reeve panted.

The president of Shinra, Inc. smiled fatherly. "Kanel has many good things to say about you, Reeve," he commented. "If I didn't know better," he said with a wink toward the third man, "I'd say you were after his job."

"No, sir!" Reeve exclaimed in alarm, glancing nervously back at Kanel. Strangely, Kanel did not seem to take offense. Indeed, his laughter was just as hearty as the president's. Gradually, it dawned on Reeve that the two executives were having a joke at his expense, and he felt his face flush a deep crimson.

"My apologies, Reeve," President Shinra chuckled. "I assure you, we didn't bring you here tonight to make fun of you. You see, we're having an executive meeting tonight, and Kanel has to be there. Unfortunately, a problem has also arisen with the construction of the sector six railway. Normally, Kanel handles problems this major personally, but this meeting really is important. You have been chosen to supervise the construction effort for the next day or so until he can make it."

Reeve's mouth dropped open, but he quickly recovered and said with what he hoped was calm, "I'm honored. Of course I'll do it."

"Very good then," the president nodded. "You are dismissed." Reeve left the office, feeling like he was floating on air. They'd finally put him personally in charge of a project, even if it was only for a couple days.

"What do you think?" Shinra asked Reeve, all pretense of warmth gone from his voice and manner.

"I don't anticipate any problems, sir. He's worked in the slums before, he hates them as much as we do."

"I hope you're right," Shinra commented as he walked around his massive desk to his seat. "Because you, after all, are the one who recommended him. If he turned out to be a poor employee ... well, it just might reflect badly on you. Dismissed."

Sitting in the back of the truck, Reeve grumbled all the way to the site. They'd told him that he would be supervising a project in section six, but they didn't tell him it was the section six slum. To make matters worse, it wasn't the major project they'd led him to believe. Kanel's vague description of "the sector six railway" just meant installing electricity in one of the ticket booths. His crew complement was all of four people, and he was told they'd likely finish the same day.

It wasn't all bad, though. It was the first real responsibility he'd ever gotten, and if he wasn't mistaken, then President Shinra and Kanel had been telling him in a roundabout sort of way that he was next in line for the office of Head of Urban Development. In fact, the more he thought about it, the better it sounded. This mission was obviously a test to see how well he could command, but it was an easy one and he couldn't help looking like a good leader. These thoughts comforted him, but nothing was quite able to make him forget that he would be spending another day in the slum.

Reeve really hated it there, and imagined that anyone born in the city would. Mako power was scarce, mostly used for public works like streetlights and the occasional destroyed touch-map. Crime was rampant in the absence of the Shinra troops, consumer goods were almost impossible to get legally, and the sound of decaying homes was almost audible. Fortunately, he'd never been there without troops around him, which shielded him from the worst of the effects. he thought,

The truck stopped. Reeve got to his feet from the small bench in the back, and vaulted over the tailgate to the ground below. It gave slightly from his landing, another small reminder that he was in the slums. The metal floors of Midgar were far less yielding than the dirt currently beneath his feet.

"Okay," he called, "let's get this over with! Everyone out!" The workers began to file out of the vehicle with their equipment in tow and walked over to the booth, where they began looking around. Reeve opened his mouth to issue another command, but stopped short when he realized that he had nothing to say. He'd been a worker once, but he worked in a factory building guardrails for some of Midgar's elevated highways. He didn't know anything about electricity, which meant he had stunningly little to do on this job. Quietly, he slipped out of the area. The slums didn't have much, but in his experience they had the best bars in the world. Reeve now made his way to the nearest one, determined to have something to do on this trip.

His search led him to a place named, simply, "Bar." He spent an hour or two there by himself, being careful not to have too much to drink. It wasn't healthy to get drunk in the slums. A lot could happen here to people who weren't in total control of their minds, none of them pleasant.

Finishing his last drink, he set it on the table, wiped his mouth off, got up, and tripped over a small child. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "You okay?"

The child looked up at him, tears welling up in its eyes. It was most certainly not okay. Reeve's accidental foot in its stomach aside, the kid appeared to have some kind of disease that was busy eating away at the left side of its face. One eye was completely swollen shut, which was probably the reason it hadn't seen Reeve getting up.

"Oh ... look, I'm sorry," Reeve stammered.

"It's all right," the boy said quietly.

"Here," Reeve said, fumbling with his watch, "I know this won't make it up to you, but you can have this." He handed the watch over to the boy. "It's very expensive, you can probably sell it on the black market for a lot of money. Why, with something like this ... you might be able to afford travel fare and a ticket for the Gold Saucer. Ever seen it?" The boy shook his head. "It's a great place. If you're lucky, you'll see it. This could be your piece of luck." Reeve smiled at the boy. "Like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

"What's a rainbow?" the boy asked.

Reeve's face fell. "They're ...," he floundered, at a loss. "Well, never mind. Good luck to you." He turned to leave the bar, but the boy called after him.

"Wait! What's your name? I'm going to tell my parents about you!" the boy beamed.

It was like being a deity, having membership in the Shinra elite cadre. They were so far above the earth that they could dispense happiness and money at their leisure. "Me?" Reeve asked. "I'm Cait Sith, the god of luck."

"Lost something?"

"I'm sorry?" Reeve looked up from the expense accounts and work reports filed by his crew, to see the foreman dangling something from his palm. Reeve's heart skipped at beat as he looked up on his own liquid crystal wristwatch.

"I picked it up on the black market a little while ago," the foreman sneered. "Guy told me they'd just got it in not too long ago, and I couldn't help but notice that you're not wearing yours. What's the matter? Got a soft spot in your heart for these gutter trash? Might be something Kanel would be interested in hearing about," he gloated knowingly.

"I don't have any idea what you mean," Reeve replied evenly, his temper restored. "I'm not wearing mine because I left it at home. Last time I was here, I checked it every few seconds, so I decided to avoid the temptation and leave it behind this run. I think, mister, that if you're going to make an accusation like that you'd better have proof to back it up."

"Oh, I can get proof. I traced the purchase back to the bar you were sighted in earlier today. In fact, I was just about to run back there to get some confirmation of this sordid incident. Care to join me?"

"No thanks," Reeve demurred. "I've got to finish this paperwork. Have fun." The foreman ran off, leaving Reeve to grind his teeth. He couldn't believe that he was going to be fired over something this stupid. For the next half hour, he agonized over the decision again and again. It was not much of a consolation to think of the boy when his own future was at stake.

Finally, the foreman returned. "Bastard," he spat foully. "Not a single person could corroborate anything about it. They all talked of some mystery man called Cait Sith, and none could actually give details about your physical appearance. You'd think even they might notice something like a man in a spotless suit entering a bar, but no. Every one of them swears up and down that while they've heard of the wonderful Cait Sith, they've never seen him in person. I hope you're satisfied.'

"I am," Reeve smirked. "And I'm going to be even more so when I turn in this paperwork I've been doing. You see, I've been preparing a complaint file for what you told me about and I was just getting to the Proof section. But it looks like I'll have to leave that part empty. Such is life, eh?"

The foreman blanched, and staggered off. Reeve smiled, finishing the form with a flourish of his pen. It was sort of fun, every now and then, being a god.