Don't Play with Fire (Turks FF7)

17) Mistakes

Tired, I knock on Reeve's office door and wait for him to get it. It takes a few moments, but I'm sure that's because he's controlling Cait or something. The first thing I notice is that there are two control stations.

"Two catbots?"

"Hm?" He seems to wake up from a daydream.

"Cait Sith?"

"Oh. Yes, there are two. Double the trouble." He chuckles nervously and I just raise an eyebrow. Then he clears his throat. "A certain situation called for two."

"Did you need help?" I brighten. I haven't done much for Reeve other than run errands and such. Watching Elmyra and Marlene on the cameras gets boring after about ten minutes.

"What? No no no no no," he says rapidly, shaking his head and briskly walking over to the second control panel. "I can't have you do that."

"And why not? You obviously have some voice distortion, otherwise you wouldn't have made it this far."

"That's not what I'm worried about," he sighs. "Kat, you know the basic character of Cait Sith, right?"

"Yeah? I've been watching you do it for, like, three days straight."

"Yes, of course. I apologize." He raises a finger to excuse himself and mutters something lowly. Then he looks up at me. "Alright. Cloud's probably annoyed by now."

I hunch over my own little booth and peer through the glass to see a jungle around me, three people I recognize, and two I don't. Tifa Lockhart, Barret Wallace, and Cid Highwind. Quite a team you've got here, Reeve.

"Hello? Cait?" A voice comes through the headphones I slip on.

"Yeah?"

"Hurry up, we've been waiting here forever."

"Right, sorry."

It takes awhile to figure out exactly what goes into making Cait Sith who he is, but I manage to sacrifice him for the sake of the planet after telling the cheesy fortunes of Cloud and Aerith and helping them fight some demon wall. The screen goes black and I set my headphones down to see Reeve standing a few feet away, watching me.

"Hello?" I raise an eyebrow.

"I didn't want to bother you while you were busy, but Rude says Reno's throwing another tantrum over something you've done."

"Don't worry about it. Cait number one is no more."

"Thank you," he nods once before going back to his station. "Oh, and Kat?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't bother with this machine, please. It doesn't work."

"... Okay." I leave the room with only one word on my mind: liar.

Annoyed, I stand before Reno and Rude's apartment, waiting for someone to open the door. I can hear my old friend yelling at my newer one and I can hear the latter irritably responding. Rude's trying to keep his cool, huh? This is gonna be good... The door swings open and someone stomps out, knocking me onto my butt. Ouch.

"Oh great, now she's here, Rude! Have fun tonight!"

"Reno, knock it off," Rude glares at him, offering a hand to pull me up. I take it gratefully, frowning at Re when I get to my feet.