raspberryturk | Office Hours, #7, Wednesday

"So, Tori told me that she told you that I was in trouble and that people wanted to kill me. I figured that it would be a good idea if you knew the whole story." She sighed. "And to be honest, I'm tired of being scared all of the time that someone is going to show up here. I'm tired of worrying that one night I'll just disappear and no one here will have any idea what has happened. I've told Ino and Karla that people want to kill me, and I've told Mitchell some of why people want to kill me. However, I haven't told any of them the full story."

Mainly because she was a little bit worried about what anyone was going to think about her when she did. Which didn't explain why she was risking telling everything to Reno, now did it?

Well, Reno was nothing if not open-minded. He gave Chloe a smile that was a little softer than his usual, and nodded a bit.

"Well, I'm all ears, if you feel alright tellin' the full story to me, yo."

There was no promising that after he heard it, he wouldn't catch a portal to the mainland and shove his baton up someone's ass. But that was totally a normal, well-adjusted response to things like this, right?

She chewed on her lip.

"See, these people run this place where they like to play games with people's lives and they messed with mine long before I was born. There's something that runs in my family. We see ghosts. It drove my uncle insane and he killed himself long before I was born. These people contacted my mother because they knew that she wanted a baby but was afraid to subject me to insanity." Yes, she knew all of this probably sounded insane anyway. "They told her they could help with that... that they knew what gene to turn off when I was conceived to prevent that from ever happening." Her eye twitched. "They lied. Oh, they were correct about the gene, but they didn't approach her to help her. They wanted to experiment with her genes and see what would happen. So when she was pregnant they did these experiments on her to mess with me."

Reno was nodding as he listened, his face a very careful mask of serenity. Or, well, as serene as Reno ever got.

Really, this didn't sound like anyone he knew of at all.

Like, say, his co-teacher. Or either of his co-teacher's BFFs, Angeal or Sephiroth.

"What happened to her?"

She took a breath. "Mom was fine until she was killed in a car wreck when I was little." Okay, younger. "We didn't know for a long time that they had done anything to me because when I first started seeing ghosts and being afraid to go near things, I was a toddler. Therefore, it was easy to think I was just having imaginary friends. For awhile it stopped, but then about three weeks before I came here last year, I was attacked at my old school by the ghost of someone who had dies years before. I was freaked out and screaming and because I tried to go through a window to get away from him, I was classified as suicidal and schizophrenic. I was sent to a home for juveniles with problems." She took a deep breath. "I'm not crazy, Reno. I'm not. I thought I was and I even took their medications like they told me to. They didn't work because they had made me into something that they couldn't control... just like they have done to several kids. When my first friend there lost control of her pyrokinetic powers, they..." Chloe swallowed and shook her head. "They had her killed. Oh, they told us all that she was at a new hospital that could help her, but her ghost came to me a few nights after she left the home. Because, Lyle House wasn't just a juvenile home. It was one of the places that these people set up to confine and control their experiments."

"I believe you, Rookie. I've seen plenty weirder than kids who can talk to the dead, yo."

And now, Reno was biting the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood. Well, fuck. It stank of ShinRa, up and down.

"That friend of yours, is she from that place, too?"

He kind of figured it would be helpful, knowing if they were both on the run, or if it was just Chloe. And if it was two of them, then he'd have twice the reason to find someone to beat to death with a baton, wouldn't he?

"Tori? Yeah, I met her there. See, they thought that they could rehabilitate us ones who manifested our powers while out of their care. Her mother is one of those people. We escaped when I found a list of names of kids... and they had notes that they weren't sure if they were going to terminate me or not. Because, I could do more than talk to the dead, and they didn't expect that. Reno... I can raise the dead. I can't make them come back to life, but I can raise their bodies and force their spirits back into them no matter what condition they're in and they have to obey me. I can't control it, yet, because I don't know enough about it. When they realized that I could do that and that I couldn't control it and that they might not be able to control me..." Well, she was sure Reno could do the math on that one. "Derek decided that we had to get out because I could disappear at any point."

"There are four of us that managed to escape from there. Tori and the others, they have powers that can be used in a fight and they're tougher or more street tough than I am. That and my father -- that I was told not to trust -- is putting out advertisements and ransom for me. We think that Lyle Group is behind that. I was sent here for that, and because my friends know that if I thought Lyle got one of them... I'd try to go and get them away no matter what it would do to me." She looked at him. "This is the second time that I escaped. The first time... they got me again because my aunt took me back to them."

Edited 2011-01-05 21:02 (UTC)

Family. Damned if you got 'em, damned if you don't. Reno was flat-out scowling, now, furrowing his eyebrows as he worked over her words.

"But here'll only do you any good until you gotta leave again," he noted, almost casually. Almost. "You know what you're gonna do then?"

That was the messed up thing. She could only stay here at most until graduation. Then, well...

"No, I don't," she finally admitted. "Because we're pretty sure that if they get a hold of me a third time that they won't take very long to decide what to do to me -- especially since I don't believe a word they said and we know they killed Liz and probably my aunt." That and there would be a pissed off juvenile werewolf that would try to come after them to rescue her if they let her live. "Because something happened before Andrew sent me here. The people from Lyle House found us after we escaped and took a bus cross country and I heard my aunt. She led me to safety. Reno, she wasn't really there. No one else saw her, heard her, or smelled her. Only me." That was still hard to talk about. "It's one of the reasons that I'm scared every time something like parents weekend or the invasions happen."

She took a breath. "Ino knows what I can do and she's been helping me with meditation techniques. I told her about an incident where I brought a body back when I was having a nightmare."

Reno nodded faintly, his expression taking a slightly odd cast again as Ino's name came up.

There was another Rookie he was going to have to talk to, some more.

"I... ain't very good at that meditation stuff," he noted, his tone a little slow, like he was carefully picking out all of his words. "But I can tell you you're safe, here, yo. I know for a fact, I ain't the only one who'd stick my neck out for you if they ever figured out where you were, yo."

Chloe gave him a small smile.

"Andrew is the only adult that any of us thought we could trust, until I came here, so that's why Tori threatened you immediately. Tori is a witch, Simon is a sorcerer and Derek is a werewolf. So, they've kind of been in a 'Chloe needs to be protected most' thing since we all became friends. I don't have their powers and I'm just trying to learn to fight. I know that it would have been dumb, but she really would have tried to set you on fire or something if she didn't know that I already trusted you and felt safe here." She pulled at a strand of her hair. "I know that, and it's why Tori and I agreed that I needed to tell you everything. Because if something happened if I were to visit Tori and the others and I was supposed to be back here and never showed..." She swallowed because the idea was a possibility. "We agreed that someone besides Ino needed to know."

She let out a breath. "I trust you, Reno, and I know you won't tell anyone about this that you don't think needs to know. However, I also will trust your judgment on who you do tell." Because, well, she only knew two of the adults well enough to trust them... and Mitchell wasn't a teacher any longer.

"If I tell anyone at all, it'll be because I think somethin' happened, and I'm callin' for backup," Reno replied, his tone even. He was already thinking of people who he could grab, if ever it came down to it. Mitchell wasn't a bad start, even if Reno didn't know some of the more... colorful points of the man's history.

"I only got a few requests, if this knowledge is what you're handin' to me," he said, thoughtfully. "First, whenever you're gonna go visit these friends of yours, I want to know when you're expectin' to come back. If you don't got a cellphone, I'll get you one. That way, if you ever step in it, you can call. I'm faster'n I look, yo."

At least, when Portalocity was being cooperative.

Chloe was surprised, but then realized she shouldn't be. Not with Reno. That would be why she started relaxing more.

"Andrew... Andrew wants us to help he and his group take down the people that run Lyle House and their other organizations so that they stop doing this to kids. They know they've killed a lot of kids, but the four of us are the only witnesses to that. He doesn't want us in the fight, just wants us to meet his friends and give them information. So, at some point, I will have to go to New York and meet these people. But... if I have to go, I had planned on letting someone here know exactly where I'm going and when I expect to be back." She let out a breath. "Because I don't want to disappear and have my friends not know what has happened to me, Reno. Lyle has caused that with too many kids and their families, and I won't let that be the case with me. People I care about will have answers and closure."

Or, well, if Reno got involved then maybe she shouldn't be expecting that all they would get is closure if shit did hit the fan.

The corner of his mouth did that little twitchy thing again.

"If it ever comes down to you thinkin' you need an escort," he mused, "I got no compunctions about gettin' my hands dirty, either."

It went nicely with that introduction that he'd been given in class on Monday. Only this wouldn't be for the killer health benefits package.

"A few months ago, I would have probably said that I couldn't ask you to get involved," she admitted. "Now, now I know that it's not about the asking, but about knowing that there are other people you can count on if you are in that much trouble."

And really, she was only almost sixteen and in no hurry to die.

Then she gave him a grin. "It would really be helpful if their group got stupid enough to try to invade here, huh?"

At that thought, Reno damn near barked out a laugh.

"No kiddin'," he replied, shaking his head a little. "They sure as hell wouldn't make it long. Might find out first-hand what some of the other people on the island with powers think of 'em. I mean, damn near everyone around here is kinda like a special little snowflake or whatever, yo."

That made Chloe laugh as she slouched in her chair. "They would try going to the administration first to convince them how troubled or dangerous I am," she said knowingly. "If that didn't work to their advantage --" Which, obviously, she now knew it wouldn't. "They would then try to ambush me or any place they thought I would be at."

That made her grin even wider. Because, really. If they tried to get at her while she was in a class?

Edited 2011-01-05 23:27 (UTC)

If they tried to get her while she was in Reno's class?

Look, the policy was no getting caught with weapons on-campus. Or, at least, that was how Reno saw it.

"Man, if they pulled somethin' like that around here, then they're way dumber than I thought," Reno mused. "They don't have some kinda info network? Where do they get their tips about the kids, usually?"

Because... Hey. He was a Turk. A Turk who had done some side-jobs for the CIA while still in high school, himself. He couldn't help but think that it would be kinda fun to fuck with their heads a bit.

Edited 2011-01-05 23:31 (UTC)

"We're not exactly sure. I mean, we know that they have to have an information network, because they keep tabs on everyone they've experimented on." Mostly so that they could kill the ones like Chloe and possibly Derek that didn't fit into things they way they thought they should. "I was able to find out that they are being funded, but after I found the notes where they said they weren't sure if I was going to be allowed to live or not, I knew that I had to get out of there. It's been too dangerous to try and sneak back in and get our hands on those records. All we have is what we managed to get copied onto Tori's laptop and what we then copied onto mine before I came here." She gave a small smile. "We figured it was a good idea if this information was in more than just one set of hands."

Edited 2011-01-05 23:36 (UTC)

Reno nodded his agreement to that.

"Definitely. I'd pass it around more than that, even," he agreed. "Shit, if I didn't think they'd pass it off as a hoax, puttin' it in the hands of the media could do huge friggin' damage against these assholes."

He pursed his lips slightly, picking up a pen and idly tapping it against the top of his desk as he thought.

"Look... What Genesis," as much as Reno hated him, "said in class about me on Monday's all true, Rookie. If you ever figure you can make use of any of that..." He shrugged, and the next phrase came out sounding almost bored. It wasn't that he was, really. That was just the way Reno worked. "Just say the word."

Kidnapping, killing, spying. Hell, he'd be lying if he said that he didn't miss it.

"I already got the okay from Tori to give it to you. I'm trying to get her to ease up on some of the other people I trust. She didn't get the chance to meet them, so..." She shook her head. "We thought about that, but then we saw how all of the pleas from my father for my safe return always touched on how frightened or disturbed or confused I am. After that, we knew anything that we came up with unless we had actual picture proof about everything would be considered a hoax or mentally unbalanced kids trying to get attention."

And oh hadn't that hurt when it had been pointed out.

Chloe hadn't liked the way Genesis introduced Reno, but she didn't comment much on it. Yet.

"It might have been true, but that doesn't tell the whole story. If it was, then you wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be concerned that I or even someone you only met once is in real shit." That was something she was definitely sure of. "And believe me, if it comes down to it, Reno, I'm really glad that you and your skills are in my corner to help."

Look, Tori had almost killed her when she was brought to Lyle House -- even if it was because she hadn't thought about what might happen to Chloe -- just because Simon liked her. However, now Tori was her best friend.

Reno wrinkled his nose a little. Ah, naivety. It was kind of cute when the Rookies were wearing it like this. It wasn't like he was ashamed of the things that he'd done for ShinRa. Some of it haunted him, maybe, but that wasn't the same thing at all.

"Well, so long as you know that my skills are there at your disposal, Rookie," he replied, shrugging. "Let me know the second anything comes up, and it's all good, yo."

She nodded. "I will, Reno, and thank you. I do feel better having you know what's going on and what could happen." She pulled out her notebook and tore out a sheet of paper. "I do have a cell phone now --" Probably thanks to one of his classes, actually. She scribbled the number down and handed it to him. "That's the number, and I'll get you a copy of everything we managed to escape with."

"Thanks, Rookie." Reno quirked a little grin, and then tore the paper down the middle, writing his own number on the empty half. "For emergencies, yo."

Or, you know, whenever. She wouldn't be the first Rookie he'd had to just call him up to shoot the shit, but she was admittedly the first Rookie he had who'd started as a student instead of a peer.

She folded the paper and put it into her pocket. That number would be getting programmed into her phone immediately. "Can I give it to Tori in case I'm unable to call?"

Office Hours, #7, Wednesday

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