Synthetic Self

[08.31.99] » by Reeve

A short portly man, his beard and eyes both black and cold, walked up the lifeless steel stairs, into the main Presidential foyer. The time for the Sector 7 Plate "project" was drawing near, and Heideggar had to get the final go-ahead from President Shinra. He heard the voices growing louder as he neared. It was Reeve, and he was complaining to President Shinra. Again.

"Are you sure we want to do this, sir? Just wipe out a small organization with only a few members?" Reeve asked, his dark eyes seemingly compassionate. Compassion wasn't something that fit into the Shinra modus operandi very easily.

The middle aged, somewhat wrinkled Shinra gave him a suspicious glare. "You're siding with these… rebels?" He rubbed a bit of lint off his expensive suit. The President was always well groomed, with his dyed blonde hair and his high-priced apparel. He had to be. He had an image to maintain.

Reeve sighed, stroking the thin goatee surrounding his features. "No sir. But as the head of Urban Development for Midgar, I've been seriously involved in the building and maintaining of Midgar." Shinra gave an annoyed grunt and began to walk away, but Reeve wasn't quite finished yet. "And I'll be damned if I see a full 8^th of it go to hell to fill some vendetta, Shinra. You can't do this!" The President paused in mid-step, scowling, and then continued his egress. "They're just a small rebel group, sir…" Reeve pleaded. "They aren't a huge threat. And you'd be killing hundreds of innocent people, just so you could wipe out one or two bad eggs… Sir, that's not right."

Shinra walked back, sighing, and placed a hand on Reeve's shoulder. "I'll take what you've said here into consideration. But for now… you seem tired."

"I know where this is leading, sir. You can't get rid of the opposition to this plan of yours that easily. I've spoken with Mayor Domino and he's against it as well. You'll meet strong opposition if you carry it out."

Heideggar abruptly broke into the conversation. "The Mayor? Gya ha ha." he laughed, his body shaking. "All he does is sit in his office and eat all day. What is he going to do to counteract the President's plan?"

Reeve started to argue, but was interrupted by Shinra again. "Look, Reeve. You're tired. Go take a vacation. I hear Costa Del Sol is nice this time of year."

Reeve's eyes showed his disapproval. "I will take a few days off like you recommend… but I am not going to leave Midgar. If you collapse the Sector 7 plate, even while I'm on vacation, I'll hear about it." Reeve's footsteps reverberated through the stale hallways as he walked towards the exit to sign out for the day.

"What if he really does bring up opposition, Shinra?" Heideggar questioned. "We can't underestimate someone that's so respected among the Mayor and Representatives."

"He doesn't matter, and neither do they. They have no real power… Besides, by the time he realizes we're serious about all of this it'll be too late for him to stop it. Then, if he complains, we either give him a bribe, or demote him… He won't stop us."

"So you're giving me the final go?"

"Yes. Collapse the plate, then release a press statement saying that we suspect AVALANCHE as the guilty party, and that we're dispatching SOLDIER to wipe them out."

"But they'll already be wiped out, sir…"

"The people don't know that, and dispatching SOLDIER will put them at ease. Then I, and SOLDIER become heroes for ridding Midgar of this plague that killed hundreds of innocents…" Shinra chuckled to himself.

"…. I see. Yes sir." Heideggar grinned as he walked to the phone to give the orders to his personal secret police. "Hello, Tseng?" he spoke jovially. "I've got a mission for your boys…"

Reeve walked inside, flicking the light switch of his small urban apartment. Although he could afford a large house, he never really liked the idea of the "high life." It all seemed too complicated. He liked his homey atmosphere, messy as it was. He lived alone, and between his work and trying to be the voice of sanity to Shinra, he didn't have time to clean up. And he didn't want to hire a housemaid, seeing as that would be dipping into the cultural elite that he tried to separate himself from.

"Hello, sir." the reverberated voice of a robot greeted. "How has the day treated you?

"Hi Proteus," he replied. "The day has been… an interesting one." he sighed as his reply. Making robots to help him at home had been his hobby. Almost an obsession sometimes. He had built robots of all types. Proteus, his favorite work of electronic art, was built to be a friend. Every potential friend he knew was involved in greasing palms and shady quid pro quo deals, so he preferred the kind of companion that didn't know of greed. And, he figured, he'd have to clean up after a dog.

"What do you mean by that, sir?"

"Shinra's doing something stupid again, but this one is the topper. He's going to collapse the…" his thought was broken by Proteus' voice.

"If you'll excuse my intrusion, sir, there was an urgent message for you today. Davalos, the Representative for the Sector 6 Sub-Plate Region, also known as the Sector 6 Slums, insists that you perform an inspection of the land. He seems to think that if you deem it unlivable, you could convince Shinra that something must be done about it. I tried to tell him that your word means little to the President, but he said he would feel more comfortable if you would at least give it a try."

Reeve sighed. "Way to start my vacation…" He changed into a T-shirt and jeans. "Give him a message. I'm on my way now."

Exiting the Wall Market, Reeve found a small playground. Just a slide, a swing set, and a small fort shaped like a cat. "I can't believe this…" He had brought along a small-wheeled robot he had made to take soil samples, and the test results showed serious pollution. "How did we get like this?" The small-wheeled robot made a few shrill squeaks as a reply, seeming like it was shrugging.

Reeve sat on one of the swings, rocking it back and forth. "Sometimes I don't blame AVALANCHE… I mean, they're against Shinra, but… with living conditions like this because of Shinra, I probably would be, too." Reeve sat silently for a while. "I should've had enough foresight when I designed this place… to know that this would happen…"

Suddenly, a helicopter flew overhead towards Sector 7. "What the….?" Reeve knew the markings of the Shinra helicopters, and this was clearly military. Probably Turk, but it went by too fast to see that specifically. He ran to follow it. He was almost out of breath by the time he got to the Sector 7 Plate support, seeing gunfire overhead. "Dammit," he thought. "Shinra's going through with it already."

As he ran to the area below the Sector 7 Plate, he noticed several guards and villagers directly under the support structure. "All of you, get out of here!" They gave him a blank stare. "I'm the head of City Development, I know this place, and I know this isn't safe! All of you, go to the Wall Market for safety, now!"

A few began to follow his instructions, followed by the rest when he gave them an uneasy glance. He noticed a man wrapped in clothes lying on the ground, and stopped one of the escaping guards. "You there, is this man…?"

"Yeah… he's dead. But don't worry about him, he's just some member of AVALANCHE that fell from up there." The guard said quickly, then continuing to run.

"Wa-wait!" Reeve hollered. The guard didn't pay attention. He looked at the man's wallet. "Wedge…" He sighed as he picked up the fallen man. "I'm sorry, Wedge." He started to carry him, moving very slowly. "Maybe you were in AVALANCHE, but you still deserve something respectable for a funeral…" Reeve drudged past the running crowds, knowing there were probably others still in the slums that didn't even know what was about to happen.

He heard a few explosions, knowing the collapse was coming soon. He had no choice but to drop Wedge and run for Sector 6. By the time he arrived at the playground he was at earlier, the structure was coming so close to collapsing, he didn't have time to safely get to the Wall Market. Shrapnel and bits of bars and wire were falling all around him. He hid under the small, cat-shaped fortress, hearing small bits of metal hit against it like rain. A sharp bar collapsed through the thin metal and landed a few feet from him. Before long, the rain of metal stopped. He waited under the structure, reaching for breath.

He didn't know how long he was under there. Minutes maybe. Then, maybe hours. His thoughts reached to everything. What if I had tried harder to change Shinra's mind? He couldn't get rid of the thoughts invading him. What if I had shown more foresight in planning Midgar as a whole? What if I… What if I could've saved Wedge's body…?

He wasn't far escaped in his thoughts that he heard voices from outside, in the playground.

"God DAMMIT!" a deep voice yelled, hitting something metal and making resounding clanks. "Marlene… Wedge, Jessie, Biggs…"

"Barret…" a softer, feminine voice chimed in. "Before she was taken by Tseng, she said 'She's okay.' Don't worry, she was probably talking about Marlene. I think she's alright. But… All our friends … and all of the people in the slums…" Reeve could hear the sadness in her voice.

"Goddamn Shinra!" the loud voice bellowed again. "All those people… just ta' get to us…"

"Are you saying it's our fault?" the female replied.

"No! NO!" the voice hollered. "It's the Shinra. It's always been the Shinra!"

Reeve considered revealing himself, telling them about Wedge, until he realized that as an active member of Shinra, these strangers might not take kindly to him. He tucked himself deeper in the small semi-globe as he heard footsteps.

"Where you goin'?" the roaring voice asked commandingly. "Goin' ta' save Aeris?"
"Yeah…" a new male voice replied. "But first… there's something I gotta know… About the ancients." He walked out of the playground, and out of sight, soon followed by the other two.

"So AVALANCHE still exists… How would Shinra react?" Reeve said under his breath, stepping out from under the tin fortress. "I… I just won't tell Shinra about this. Who knows how many more plates he'd destroy before giving up on killing them…" He brushed the dirt off his knees, and started walking to the Shinra Employee Plate elevator that had brought him there.

It was almost 11 o' clock before Reeve stepped back into his house again. He was greeted once again by Proteus, who gave him yet another message. "President Shinra apologizes for the short notice, and for pulling you off of your vacation slightly, sir, but he has called a meeting at noon tomorrow."

Reeve felt uneasy all of a sudden. "About what?"

"The collapse of the Sector 7 Plate. He… weren't you talking about that earlier, sir?"

"Yeah… but I didn't think the son of a bitch would actually do it… especially not so soon."

Almost seeming to recompose himself, Proteus continued with the message. "He wants to discuss a new project involving Midgar, and thinks that as head of City Development you should be there."

"New project? I'm the one that initiates new projects, he doesn't have the clearance or the know-how to expand Midgar."

"I realize that sir, but this didn't seem like it was going to be an expansion project. At least, not in the best-known sense of the word." Even though he was a machine, Proteus seemed to look at Reeve in a curious way.

Reeve glared at him for a while. "What does that mean?"

"I'm not quite sure, sir. I was hoping you would know better. It sounded a lot like he wanted to build a second Midgar, elsewhere. Expanding on a global scale, I suppose."

"Of all the stupid ideas…" Reeve let out a moan of disgust, then smiling. "Well, who knows… Maybe I can make things right with this one…"

Reeve had never been more prepared for a meeting than he was that day. Getting only two hours of sleep and drinking a lot of coffee, he had compiled all the estimates for the original cost of Midgar, including urban development, funds for small business, stock estimates and local businesses. He then split all of the estimates into the total cost of Sector 7 to build, considering how developed it was compared to the other Sectors, and the total cost for Midgar. Taking all of that into account, he had estimated the cost to rebuild the Sector 7 Plate and start anew. After forty-three pages of scratch work, and sore fingers from typing on a calculator, he had found all the figures. And all forty-three pages were now sitting comfortably in his briefcase, waiting to tell the President all he needed to know to rebuild.

He walked into the Conference Room with great pride in himself, despite the lag he was starting to feel from his lack of sleep. He was the first one called to speak, and rose his head with self-regard. "According to my estimates, sir, the cost to rebuild Midgar Sector 7 Plate will be approximately 100 milli…"

"We're not going to rebuild." Shinra broke in.

"What?!" Reeve asked vehemently, partially because of all the work he had to go through to get the figures that were cut off coldly.

"We're not going to rebuild. I've called you all here to unveil my latest brainchild…" Reeve rubbed his eyes, sighing, and asked the Shinra secretary for more coffee. Black. "Neo-Midgar!" The President exclaimed with vigor. "We're scouring the globe for the Promised Land, flowing with Mako energy. There, we will have such an abundance, we'll never run out!"

Reeve couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Sir, with all due respect, the Promised Land is a myth that you keep hoping is real, to chase this dream of 'Neo-Midgar.' But take it from me, it wouldn't work. It's just not practical."

Shinra scowled. "It's the ultimate dream!"

"That's why it's so implausible, Shinra!" Reeve broke in. "It's a fairy tale…"

"Not according to our head of Scientific Development. He's currently working on a project that will lead us straight to it." Shinra pressed a call button on his desktop communication console. "Hojo, could you come in here?"

Lanky, pale, and sickly, with straggly hair and a sour expression, Dr. Hojo walked into the room slowly, dragging his white lab coat off his tall legs. "Yes, Shinra?" he spoke in a raspy voice.

"Tell Reeve here about the Promised Land. And the Ancient." Shinra sat back in his chair, grinning.

"We've collected the last remaining Ancient, who, according to prophecy, will lead us to the Promised Land. Unfortunately, for her to have the potential of her mother, the potential to lead us there, she would take over 120 years. Well over her lifespan… or ours." Hojo scoffed. "So," he said, sighing at President Shinra, "I plan to breed her with another dying species, and hopefully her offspring will have more potential than her…" Hojo walked out of the room, not looking back or taking notice to the reaction of the people in the room.

Shinra tried to regain himself, shocked at the news. "So… you see, Reeve?" he said, trying to sound smug. "It does exist!"

"Even if it did, President, we wouldn't possibly have the funds to build an entirely new Midgar from scratch. What are you going to do, move this one with a crane?"

Shinra turned to meet eyes with the rest of the employees. "I will raise the tax by 15%"

Palmer, head of Air/Space Exploration, jumped up and down jubilantly. "Another shuttle? Will we fund another shuttle?"

"No," the President snapped, giving Palmer a condescending look. "50% of the new funds collected will go to Heideggar, and 50% will go to the nest-egg for Neo-Midgar."

Reeve couldn't believe this. The people in the slums would be especially crippled by this move. He knew how they lived, now. He had been there. He knew they couldn't afford such a tax hike. "Sir, you can't be serious. Fifteen percent? Do you have any idea what the reaction of the people will be?"

"Bread and circuses, Reeve," Shinra smiled. "We provide entertainment, heat, electricity, public transportation… They should be thanking us." Shinra looked over to the rest of the men. "Meeting adjourned."

Reeve was the last to leave, finding himself unable to break his angry gaze at the President. "This is ridiculous. I've got to do something…" he grumbled as he stepped through the cold steel doors and to the 65^th level elevator.

It had now been a full two weeks after the destruction of the Sector 7 Plate. The depression Reeve was feeling was beginning to wear off. But those words still rang in his ears. All those people… just to get ta' us… It still hurt. Probably because it rang so true in his own ears. It was what he was thinking before the plan was carried out, and he couldn't do a thing. It's the Shinra! It's always been the Shinra! Reeve knew these things all too well. Better than AVALANCHE. He almost felt like he belonged in AVALANCHE.

The last two weeks had been like a vacation. Ever since the now Classified "Sephiroth incident," Rufus took over the family business, and there wasn't much need for Reeve's services anymore. Rufus was Shinra's son, just barely a man. His face was young and still showed youth, but his eyes discredited any innocence his foreboding smile would make people come to believe. His eyes were cold--much colder than his father's. Shinra would throw money at the people to keep them happy, contented, and blind. Rufus, unbelievably, wasn't that kind. Rufus didn't care about keeping the citizens content. He only wanted to keep them in their place, happy or not. He ruled by fear, using SOLDIER and the Turks for his martial law. His plan was still to discover the Promised Land, but by completely different means; by using Heideggar's top-secret Highwind Airship. Once it was discovered, Reeve might be called back to work to develop the new Midgar. But for now it was nice to have the equivalent of a paid vacation.

"Proteus, come in here a moment, please?" Reeve called into the study.

"Yes, sir?" Proteus wheeled in.

"I need you to help me out here. Hold this panel down while I screw it in."

Proteus did as he was told immediately, his arms stretching out of their sockets to fit into the narrow crevices. "May I ask what this thing is, sir?"

"Hold on." Reeve said as he tightened the final screw. He backed up, securing a zipper in the back, covering the panel he had just finished securing. "There, finished… Cait Sith." Reeve stepped back from the creation. It was a giant Mog, a fantasy creature popular amongst children and the mascot of the Gold Saucer casino. It was completely white, and covered with false fur. It had fangs from the bottom lip of its mouth, and proportionally tiny red bat-like wings sticking out of its back, on each side of the zipper. On his neck rode a squinty-eyed black and white cat with a crown on his forehead and a smug grin on his face. He picked up a small remote device and hit some keys, the creature rising its head, popping to life.

"Watch this." Reeve hit a few keys on the remote. "It speaks at full-volume when I whisper." the cat-like half of the creature said in a high-pitched, squeaky voice as Reeve's voice said the same thing barely being heard.

"That's all very nice, sir, but…. what exactly is it for?" Proteus said, touching the giant creature's wings and pillow-shaped arms curiously.

Reeve hit a few keys, turning off the voice magnification system. "To help AVALANCHE. Cloud, and all those people I could've saved… if I had just convinced Shinra not to go through with it…" Reeve lowered his head, as the cat creature followed in unison.

"How do you propose it does that, sir?"

"Through commands!" Reeve's face seemed to light up with anticipation. "I command the cat, the 'Cait' half. Then the Mog, the 'Sith' half follows the commands through voice-recognition of the Cait. Then, the Sith half can execute powerful attacks from brute strength. I'd be killed if I helped Cloud and his friends directly, but with this…. With this!"

Proteus seemed dumbfounded. "Amazing, sir…"

"And the louder the voice, the stronger the attack." Reeve said excitedly, placing a crude megaphone in the Cait's gloved paws. "Shinra never listened to me… but with this megaphone, someone sure will…"

"… I see sir. But why did you choose the shape to be a cat? You could've easily made a humanoid robot like me. It would probably be more effective for battle situations."

"The day I overheard Cloud and his friends… I was hiding under a children's fort, shaped like a cat. I could hear them, and learn how to help them, without persecution, as long as I was hiding under that cat… I guess this is my way of continuing that." Reeve shrugged as he placed the remote device back into his pocket, once again the cat mimicking his movements.

"I see… Well, good night, sir. I'm going to recharge. I suggest you do the same." Proteus wheeled out of the living room into the study, plugging himself into an electrical jack and shutting down.

"Thanks, Proteus. G'night."

It was early morning when Proteus found Reeve, asleep on the desk chair with the computer console that controlled Cait Sith, his fingers resting on the positions they had been on when he couldn't stay awake any longer. Proteus gently nudged him, making Reeve wake with moans and yawns. "Terribly sorry to disturb you, sir. But I just took a message from Rufus Shinra. He wants you to go on a scouting mission of the Sector 3 Slums. He said he knows it will take at least a day."

"Damn Rufus…" Reeve grumbled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Just wants me to suffer…"

Reeve quickly got dressed into clothes that a slum resident would wear and headed out the door. "The sooner I leave, the sooner I can get back."

It was three days before Reeve returned. He walked slowly, dragging his legs to his doorway. The slums, as he had expected, were trashed and uncivilized. Even given his title, it was impossible to find a place to stay, so he found himself sleeping on street sides and alleyways. It was then that he saw a new side of Shinra living conditions. There were more people than he'd ever expected living like he was. Only his homelessness was temporary. Some of them, he found, had jobs before Shinra downsized. Some others had small businesses put out by Shinra themselves. Broken promises, contracts, and hearts seemed to be the theme of the Sector 3 Slums.

He moved to his doorway, happy just to see it again. To his surprise, it was open a crack. Reeve opened it slowly, peering through the dim light to find his small apartment trashed. Papers of scratch-work and computer printouts were scattered over the floor. Chairs tipped on the floor, the television on its side at the floor and tuned to the Shinra News Channel. A silhouette figure stood still in the back. "Who are you?" The figure remained still. "Who the hell are you?!" Reeve demanded. The figure stepped forward slowly, the small amount of light shadowing his smooth features. Tseng. The long dark hair and dotted forehead was his signature style. The head of the Turks, Shinra's secret police; they were responsible for the crash of the Sector 7 Plate, and had always been involved in several other underground operations on the side. Kidnappings, murder, and apparently trashing Shinra employee apartments. Things that would be illegal to anyone else. But then, Shinra Inc. controlled the law enforcement too.

"Tseng… What the hell are you doing?!"

"We received orders to come and find out what you were doing here. There seemed to be an odd amount of energy being taken up by such a small apartment in the last few months. Rufus kept you distracted."

"You little bastard!" Reeve yelled, charging towards him. It wasn't long before Reno and Rude, two of the other Turks each had strong grasp on an arm, holding him back.

"We just follow orders, Reeve. Which is more than the President can say for you." Tseng gave Reeve a condescending scowl.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reeve asked, freeing his arms and recomposing himself.

"Read your Shinra Inc. Contract. Anything you make on your own free time is supposed to turned over to Shinra Inc., no questions asked. You're only permitted to own property bought at a Shinra Inc. or another small business shop. You're not permitted to make anything to convenience yourself. You signed the contract. We're just making sure you follow it."

"You turned over my creations to Shinra?!"

"Of course," Tseng replied, smirking.

"… And the apartment redecoration?"

"Incentive."

Reeve paused. "Proteus! Where's Proteus?"

"He's serving Rufus as a butler and secretary. We reprogrammed him. At first he was didn't like the idea." Tseng circled Reeve as he talked. "It intrigued the President that a robot could be opposed to a command, however. He commends you on your skills. But warns you not to use them again."

Reeve collapsed on a chair in thought, before it hit him. "Cait Sith?! What happened to him?"

"Oh yes, we did find some sort of odd creature. Scarlet proposed disassembly to find it's programming." The terror in Reeve's eyes spoke volumes. "But Rufus decided to reprogram slightly and sell it to Gold Saucer. They have a thing for large, ugly Mogs. We got quite a bit of money for it too."

Reeve couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You sold my creation to a casino?!"

"Yes. They wanted mass production, but there were no original blueprints or programming code on file. So we reprogrammed, building on whatever it was that was already there. He's a fortune teller of some sort now."

Reeve sighed, looking over his apartment. There was nothing he could do now. Not against the Turks. Not against Shinra itself.

"Our business is done here." Tseng seemed friendlier now. "Good day, Reeve." He motioned for his fellow Turks to leave. They left immediately as he remained in the room, glaring at the embittered man in contemplation.

"Tseng… why? How could you do this?"

Tseng looked disgusted with himself. "We were just following orders, Reeve. We have to follow orders." His voice was filled with regret. "I don't want to have to do this again, or worse. Just try to follow Shinra from now on."

"But…" Reeve couldn't get out what he was feeling. He didn't know how to word it.

"It's not wise to bite the hand that feeds you. Especially when that hand belongs to Rufus Shinra. You just watch yourself."

The final Turk started to leave. He paused halfway down the apartment complex hallway, starting to look back. He shrugged, seeming to let the weight fall off his shoulders, then continued to walk into the dark staircase and out of sight.

Reeve again surveyed the wrecked home. Everything was destroyed now. His glance drifted from place to place; the ripped and overturned couch, the printouts and scratch-work of his figures for the rebuilding of the Sector 7 Plate lying scattered on the floor, the computer console he had been working with just two days earlier.

The computer console… Upon closer inspection the casing was chipped and cracked. Even missing in some places, but the computer still seemed to be working. If it's working… Reeve thought. He removed the Cait Sith remote device from his pocket, plugging it into the computer. Getting Cait Sith back into the mode of his original programming would be hard enough, made even harder by the fact that he had to do it over the distance of an ocean, all by remote controlled programming code. But he had to.

Reeve closed his eyes in a short bit of rest, rubbing them and drinking a sip of two-day old coffee. "I've got to get control of Cait Sith again."

After pulling a continuous four-day all-nighter, Reeve seemed to have worked out all the bugs. Cait Sith was working under his remote command, and on auto-command for when Reeve had to take a break. There were a few known glitches, where a programming error would occur and he'd slip back into his Shinra Inc. program, but those happened infrequently enough that it wasn't a problem. Besides, the fortunes Shinra programmed Cait Sith to give were so ridiculous, it didn't seem to matter anyway.

Reeve was just coming back from eating a much-needed meal when he noticed a light flashing on the remote. The sensors had picked up something that resembled Cloud. Reeve had pieced together what he would look like from Shinra News and Wanted posters, but the alarm really didn't seem to do much good. Reeve kept trying to get Cait Sith out of Gold Saucer to find Cloud, rather than waiting for him, but Gold Saucer officials would stop him every time. The alarm had seemed to pick out anyone with blonde hair and a somewhat-blue outfit, which didn't narrow it down much. Reeve had grown accustomed to hitting the key to turn off the flashing light, sometimes not even bothering to look at the monitor, but this time something caught his eye.

It was Cloud. Unmistakably. And he was with another on the Shinra Wanted list. The escaped specimen from Hojo's lab. Red XIII. That was the proof Reeve needed. He turned on the remote.

"Hiya!" he said, boisterously greeting the pair. "I'm Cait Sith."

Cloud gave an odd stare. "… Hi."

"An odd being…" Red commented.

"I'm a fortune-teller. Would you like your fortune told?" the Cait half proclaimed proudly.

"What the hell?!" Reeve outburst worriedly. "I didn't tell him to say that!"

"Sure, why not." Cloud chuckled.

Reeve quickly tapped at the keys trying to regain control. It had always taken at least a half-hour to get back control of Cait Sith when he went into a bout of fortune telling, and he didn't have nearly that much time before Cloud would leave.

"You're fortune is…" Cait said slowly as the Sith hopped back and forth. "Blue."

"Blue?!" Reeve yelled. "What kind of fortune is that?! You're gonna lose their interest fast if you keep that up!" Reeve nimbly typed codes and desperately tried to override the Shinra system.

"What are you talking about…?" Cloud asked, obviously as bewildered as Reeve was.

"Wait, wait. Give me another chance." Cait pleaded. "Umm… your fortune is… ummm…" The Sith mog danced in place as Cait sat atop in thought. "You will… lose something dear to you soon."

Just as Cait finished that sentence, a light signified to Reeve that he was back in control. And luckily much quicker than he had ever been before.

Cloud looked at him cynically. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Reeve searched for something to say. He had never been the most articulate of people, and couldn't think of a good lie to get himself out of the hole Cait's fortune telling had dug him. "Umm…" he reached "I don't care what you say, I'm coming with you!" Reeve said, trying to change the subject. He peered at the monitor to see if his new friends had bought it.

Red XIII gave Cloud a confused look. The young man simply shrugged. "As long as you don't slow us down, you can come along."

Reeve sat back in admiration of his finest work, finally coming to what he had always intended it to do as he pressed the button combination to make Cait work automatically. He sat back as he watched the three move along Gold Saucer. It's always been the Shinra! The words were coming to him again. It's not wise to bite the hand that feeds you… A sudden calm grew over him this time. If only I could've… I couldn't. I couldn't save Wedge's body… he thought in regret. But now, I can save his spirit.