Reeve had better things to do than fix small appliances; someone needed to get the Turks under control, figure out what to do with all the refugees, devise some sort of water treatment system for the camps, and see what could be done about food. Small appliances, even contrary and stubborn space heaters, were far more cooperative than anything of those things, particularly Turks and refugees, which was why bits and pieces of a space heater were spread over the floor of the room. He was poking at it half-heartedly when someone ran up the stairs and into the room.
"Wow! That's a lot of stuff in there!" Sergio said, peering interestedly at the mess. "You can fix anything, right, Mr. Reeve?"
"Not anything. Were you supposed to tell me something?"
"Oh! There's people here to see you!" Sergio frowned, upset. "I forgot what their names were!"
Reeve could easily guess. "Did one of them have spiky hair and a really big sword?"
"Yeah!" Sergio's eyes lit up. "And there's a girl with really long hair, and another one with a big spiky thing! She wouldn't let me touch it."
It was hard to tell if Yuffie was being possessive or didn't want to see Sergio cut off a finger on that shuriken. "Anyone else?"
Sergio nodded, bouncing. "There's a big red cat! And a blond man who says all the words we're not supposed to! And there's a guy with a claw and a black cape!"
Cid probably said most of those words in five minutes while he was looking for coffee. "I know them. I'll go on down."
Sergio tagged along and peered around the door at them when Reeve went in to introduce himself, until one of the Sisters hurried him away. Nanaki was much larger than Reeve had expected; the cat could probably bite off his head without effort. Cid might need more effort; he also needed a shave and a week's worth of sleep. A week's worth of sleep would have done all of them good; Barret looked like death warmed over and Yuffie looked like something the cat had dragged in. Vincent didn't look tired, but he did look as if God himself couldn't make him get off the sofa.
Cloud nodded at him and said, "What happened in Midgar?"
He ran out of words at Lifestream. He'd been in the middle of it; they'd been on the Highwind. But by the looks on their faces, it had affected them too. He gave up trying to describe it and went on to explain how dangerous Midgar had become, and the exodus. Somewhere around then, Sergio snuck back into the room.
"That's a neat cape, mister, where'd you get it?" Sergio asked, clambering up on the sofa next to Vincent. "How come nobody ever makes you cut your hair? Sister Guadalupe always cuts my hair if it gets past my ears."
Reeve found it somewhat difficult to concentrate on how many people had been evacuated while Vincent was being pestered by a small boy totally fascinated with his cape. Vincent looked as if he would like to forcibly remove Sergio from his presence, despite Tifa's disapproving glare. Cloud was having trouble keeping a straight face.
"Geez, Vincent," Yuffie remarked after Vincent made a particularly terse response to a question. "No wonder you can't make friends."
Reeve was sure that glare was meant to kill, and equally sure Yuffie was completely unaffected.
Nanaki, who had been dozing in a sunny spot, stretched, yawned and said, "You could talk a little more, Vincent."
Vincent sighed. Sergio spun around and said, "You can talk?"
Nanaki blinked at him. "Of course. Can't you?"
Sergio frowned, trying to puzzle that out. "I've never seen anybody like you before. Well, Kitty looks sorta like you, but Kitty's little!" The boy held out his hands to indicate how big Kitty was, which was about the size of Nanaki's paw. He clambered back off the sofa and darted over in Nanaki's direction. "What's your name? My name's Sergio."
"My name is Nanaki. I am from Cosmo Canyon."
Vincent looked relieved as Sergio wandered over to chatter at Nanaki. Reeve was about to excuse himself to get Sergio out of the room when one of the nuns arrived; she scolded Sergio, apologized to them, and herded him out, closing the door firmly behind her.
"Turks are still here?"
He nodded. "Guess there wasn't any time for them to go anywhere else. I don't know if they have any plans."
Yuffie yawned. "You're what's left of Shinra. What are you gonna do about them?"
He doubted the Turks particularly believed he was in charge of anything. "Try to keep them from causing trouble." She didn't seem satisfied with that answer. Neither did Cloud. "What are you going to do?"
"See Marlene," Barret grumbled, and stomped out of the room.
He didn't really expect much more from Barret. Cloud scratched his head.
"So the Turks aren't up to anything?"
He hadn't explained about Hojo's experiment, and it probably wasn't a good idea right now. "Reno's trying to drink Kalm dry, but he's got a lot of competition. I should find somewhere to move refugees before the beer runs out."
* * * * *
Elena was starting to wonder if Hojo's notes and records had any useful information at all, or if he'd kept everything in his head. Most of the notes were recordings of arcane measurements, with cryptic notations accompanying strings of letters and numbers. Some were reports of progress, or lack of progress - Hojo was rather petulant about his lack of access to his subjects. Another note, marked with Turk in the top left corner, caught her attention when she saw Lucrecia mentioned.
All tests indicate this subject's pregnancy is proceeding normally. Embryo has successfully implanted and is developing well. Tests indicate that the unusual placenta observed in Lucrecia has also developed in this pregnancy; a Caesarian will be required to deliver. Blood and curative materia will be needed and the proper requisitions have been made.
Subject shows minimal negative effects at this time. A severe nausea was corrected by Mako treatment; Lucrecia also reported severe nausea, and this may be a common effect of Jenova-influenced pregnancy. At this time, subject has received approximately double the normal dose; no negative effects have been noticed at this time, and treatments will continue. Embryo development is approximately one and one half times faster than expected; other tests show inconclusive results. Subject will require careful monitoring as pregnancy progresses; restraint may be needed to ensure full-term undamaged pregnancy. Subject displays none of the mood swings or unpredictable behavior exhibited by Lucrecia; at this time, it is uncertain whether environmental differences or treatment variations are responsible. Other subject unavailable for comparison.
There was no date on the report, and the charts were largely incomprehensible. She read it twice, sick, and jumped when Reno rapped her shoulder. She handed him the report; he read it, frowned, and passed it to Rude.
"There'll be someone to take care of it," Rude said, handing it back, and left. Reeve came over and read it over.
"Well, shit," Reno said. "Find anything with a date on it?"
"Three-month-old note from Glatz," she said. "So it's been less than that, at least."
"Yeah, we'd have noticed you getting fat around the middle," Reno remarked, and ducked Elena's swat.
Reeve glanced through the charts and gave the report back. "When did you start getting sick?"
She frowned, thinking. "Ah ... it was when Strife was chasing the Huge Materia, I think. I never got airsick before." She thought a bit more and said, slowly, "I was feeling tired before that, since I woke up after being brought back from the jungle. I thought it was just from everything else."
Reeve drummed his fingers on the table. "Who's the other subject?"
Elena looked at the report again, this time catching the final line. "Are we sure there's only one?"
"No," Reeve said with a sigh. "Not considering that this is Hojo we're talking about."
Reno considered this and said, "Fuck. I want a beer. 'Lena, you coming?"
"Yeah. Reeve?"
"I'm going to go check something out."
The square was less crowded than usual, though the bar looked to be packed. Elena and Reno, amiably squabbling over nothing in particular, walked past him. Reeve stretched, looked around and saw Tifa in the shadow of the water-tower, watching Yuffie and Cloud. He couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Cloud at least was laughing. Tifa turned away toward the orphanage.
"Tifa?"
"What is it?"
"Are you feeling all right?" He backed off and raised his hands when she glared. "No, it's important. You had a bad set of hallucinations at when the Rocket hit Meteor, didn't you?"
"Yes, why does it matter?"
"Elena had a similar experience. We discovered Hojo had been using her in an experiment - "
"And he might have gotten at me too. When I was comatose for that week." She looked back to Cloud and Yuffie. "I felt strange, but everything was crazy."
"Yes."
She shook her head. "I feel like someone ripped off my skin," she said, and walked away toward the orphanage. Cloud raised a hand and walked over to meet her, and Yuffie vanished into the crowd.
Reeve intended to go back to work, but someone wanted to know where it was safe to dig a new privy trench, and someone else wanted to know what to do with all the leftover soldiers hanging around. Maybe Cloud would have some ideas. Maybe Vincent would have some ideas on how to keep the Turks out of trouble. Assuming Vincent considered the Turks in any way his problem. By the time he'd gotten away, he'd missed dinner, and desperately needed a bath.
He couldn't take a proper bath or a shower; he'd suggested the water restrictions to the mayor himself. Well, he could at least get a sponge bath and remove the worst of the grime. He was pulling off his shirt even before he closed the door, until he heard someone laugh.
"Yuffie," he said, indignantly pulling his shirt back down, "what do you have against doors?"
She shrugged, wind whipping through the window she was sitting in. It was going to rain tonight. Well, it might help the water situation. "They're boring. So where do you think you're gonna put all those people you got out of Midgar?"
He frowned. "You could have asked me that any time. There's room down south of the Chocobo Ranch, and around that lake the Weapon made between Fort Condor and Junon. There's supposed to be some decent spots on the coasts."
"Better tell them that," she said. "And better tell 'em to watch who they're blaming for shit, cause there's gonna be trouble."
He should have had the Turks looking out for problems. He should have - he needed more eyes, more ears and a lot of sleep. He wasn't all that sure what Yuffie was getting at, other than that something was likely to blow up.
"Why are you telling me this?" he asked. Yuffie liked secrets, and she didn't give them up for nothing.
"Cause nobody else's gonna listen to somebody with a Wutai accent. I can't wait to get home, even if Dad's gonna be an ass about it." She flipped back out of the window and disappeared; she was out of sight by the time Reeve made it across the room and looked out.
He closed the window anyway, hoping Yuffie was exaggerating the situation the way she was exaggerating her accent. She was certainly exaggerating his ability to fix things. He sat down on the bed and picked up somebody's cell phone; the screen flashed 'out of service area'. Maybe his secretary had made it safely to Junon. Maybe Junon was still there.
He tossed the cellphone away. He'd ask Cid to fly over and check it out sometime soon. Whether Cid actually would was an open question, but he could at least ask. The Turks could check out the situation in the camps; he probably should have had them do it. Assuming they were interested in following his orders.
He sponged off as much of the dirt as he could, collapsed onto the pallet, and tried to convince himself the rest of the world wasn't his problem.
* * * * *
Reno and Elena were out in the camps, seeing if Yuffie was right about brewing trouble; Elena had seemed more confident about Yuffie's sources than Reno was. He should find out why when they got back; he hadn't told them about his suspicion that Tifa was the other subject yet. Cait was sitting slumped in his borrowed garret, waiting for Reeve to fix his scorched fur and blown circuits. Rude was trying to beat a car into running, though there was almost no fuel left; he had no real faith that Cid would let them back on the Highwind. Reeve had to admit it wasn't likely.
He was still working through Hojo's notes and records, a stack of which blew off his desk when the window unexpectedly opened.
"What do you and Yuffie have against doors?" he said, to his own surprise, and restacked the papers. Hanging around the Turks was not doing anything good for his sense of self-preservation.
Vincent dropped to the floor and closed the window behind him. His glare was considerably more effective on Reeve than it had been on Yuffie; it suddenly got very difficult to breathe, think or do anything but wonder how short Vincent's temper really was.
"Tifa informed me of Hojo's experiment. I want to know what you know."
Reeve found he could breathe again. "Not much. We have a lot of disorganized data."
The door swung open and Reno sauntered into the room, followed more correctly by Elena.
"Well, good afternoon, sir," Reno drawled at Vincent. "Camps are a mess, Reeve."
"With Shinra gone, there's no one who can keep them scared enough to keep control," Elena said. "We were attacked three different times, by people apparently not bright enough to notice what happened to the previous ones."
"Attacked by who?" Reeve asked.
"Two Wutaians and a Midgarian," Elena said. "Didn't get them alive, so we don't know who they were working for, if anyone. No one's talking to us at the moment."
"Were you attacked because you are Turks, or because you were available to be attacked?" Vincent inquired.
Reno frowned. "Midgarian's a guy I had to deal with for screwing around with company property. Dunno about the Wutaians."
Elena shook her head. "Not sure either. Looked like gangers, trying to make an impression on their boss. Weren't speaking anything but Wutaian," she said. "I heard a few curses, but I don't know the language."
"Hear anything else?"
"Lotta grumbling," Reno said with a shrug. "Hate the food, hate the piss-trenches, hate the tents ..."
"The Wutaians hoard stuff and sell it for too much. Usual slum complaining," Elena added. "There was some grumbling that they grabbed too many campsites, too. They do all their complaining in Wutaian, so I don't know what they had to say, but they didn't sound happy either. Last night's rain helped some, but now they're bitching about the mud."
"Do they speak of a future?" Vincent asked.
Reno shrugged. "Nope. Not more than two days out, anyway."
Reeve still wasn't sure what Yuffie had been getting at. He'd have to try to get her to tell him something more concrete. Both Turks were looking curiously at Vincent. "Ah. I may have identified Hojo's other experimental subject."
"I think," Vincent said, "I am capable of making that determination."
"Yeah? And if we don't feel like being helpful?" Reno grumbled.
"I doubt I will require your assistance."
Elena put her fists down on the stack of papers on Reeve's desk. "You might. It's our information, after all."
Tseng had an impressive glare when he felt it necessary; no wonder Elena didn't flinch. Vincent eventually nodded. "Very well. I will share any discoveries."
A few minutes later a runner came to tell him the mayor wanted to talk to him. Reeve hesitated, decided everyone involved was capable of defending themselves, and went. Nothing seemed to have happened when he got back, though Reno was looking suspiciously smug about something. The mayor had just wanted to know when all these people were going to leave; Reeve had asked if he had any ideas what to do with them. The man had blustered some and suggested sending them to the still-healthy land south of Midgar, even if he wouldn't go any closer to the city than Kalm itself. Nobody was going to go back through Midgar to get anywhere.
Vincent had made short work of several stacks of paper, sorting them into several smaller stacks. Reeve booted up his laptop, wondering how long they could keep the emergency generators running, and what kind of alternate power sources would be suitable in Kalm, and began going through Hojo's file. Solar wouldn't work alone, here, where it was too cloudy in the winter; but winters did tend to be windy. A combination of solar power and wind power would work well; he scribbled that down, with a note about whether ocean currents would be able to supply hydroelectric power for Junon, and went on searching.
He only realized how hungry he was when Vincent stood up; the gunman handed some papers to Elena and disappeared out the window.
"Cape must get stuck in the door," Reno remarked.
Elena ignored him and checked the papers, then offset them on her stack and shook her head. "Looks like genetics. I can try translating it after dinner."
"Sounds like a good idea," Reeve said, shutting down his laptop.
