Every Now and Then
Chapter 9: Long Way Down
“Well, I guess we’d better start workin’ together, then.”
“Are you sure you’re alright, Reno?” Yuffie asked. The strange spell that had come over the Turk only minutes before was still lingering vividly in her mind, as she was sure it was in Elena’s. The fact that he hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about the details of what he’d seen… or thought he’d seen… only made her more curious.
“I’m fine,” he said firmly.
“Did we miss something?” Tifa asked.
“Nothing important… Just tried to take Elena’s head off, that’s all,” Reno muttered, and moved toward the elevator. Of course, with no power, the car wouldn’t work, but if the cables were still in place it wouldn’t be too difficult to climb down to the next level… Hell, if they were lucky, the people who designed this place might have even been intelligent enough to put in a ladder for maintainence access, “Rude… Help me with the door, will ya? And that stupid lizard is not coming with us, Yuffie!”
Rude shrugged and stood opposite Reno, who was wedging the handle of his electo-rod between the sliding doors of the elevator… They just needed enough room to get a decent grip… the doors popped apart a fraction of an inch.
“Alright, pull,” he said, latching onto his own half, and throwing his weight back. The door groaned loudly and between the effort of the two men, it inched its way open. It wasn’t long before they’d openned a gap more than wide enough for them to fit through. Reno glanced cautiously inside. He couldn’t tell if the car was above or below them… though given the general state of the building, he really hoped it was below them. The light from Rude’s penlight revealed that there was indeed an access ladder… and even better, in a small recess next to said ladder was a pair of flashlights. He reached out and gathered them up, clicking the switch on one. A beam of light illuminated the dark hallway. He tried the second, and it too worked. He tossed it to Tifa, and kept the first for himself.
“Ladies first,” Reno said with a slight bow of invitation.
“Gee… Thanks,” scoffed Tifa, but she slipped past him and into the elevator shaft.
———-
They were almost exactly where It wanted them to be. It watched them silently from the end of the hallway and they prepared to go down. It slowly moved away… Their way was not It’s way… It would take the easy way down. Down, down, down to the light. They would find their way on their own… all It would have to do was meet them there and guide them into the light. The light would be pleased with It… The light would finally give it what it wanted.
———-
“Where… am I?”
There was nothing… nothing but the light. He was still falling. Sephiroth was gone, as was Aeris, and he was falling towards… well, towards nothing, really. Nothing that he could see, at any rate.
“We don’t know…” a warm, feminine voice suddenly answered him. Cloud turned his head toward the sound, but saw no one.
“Where are you! Why did you bring me here?!… Where’s Aeris?! And Sephiroth!” he shouted, the sensation of falling never ceasing for a moment.
“We are wherever we are,” another voice replied, male this time, and again Cloud turned to look, only to see the shimmering light all around him, “All of us are here.”
“But where the hell is here?” he yelled back at the voice.
“She already told you… We don’t know…” answered a third voice, also male.
“I don’t understand!”
“We know… We don’t entirely understand it either. We have been here for a very long time… At least, we think we have. It’s so hard to remember…” the first voice said, in an appologetic tone.
“We had hoped that you’d come to help us,” said the second voice.
“Help you?”
“Help us find our way back,” said the third, “We’ve been trying for so long…”
“You mean… We’re trapped here?” asked Cloud, his mouth suddenly dry. There was no way out… he could somehow sense it now. There was only the light, and nothing more. And a new thought occured to him, “Am I… Am I dead? Is that why I saw Aeris?”
“No… At least we don’t think this is death,” the woman’s voice said, “There was another person here… Doctor Umeshi was here. She disappeared. We hope that she somehow found a way home.”
“Yes… we think that Kionae found a way back to the island,” the second voice concurred.
“I don’t,” said the third voice, “I think she’s the one who’s dead.”
“A doctor? Island?” said Cloud, busily processing this new information, the activity clearing his mind for the first time since he’d spoken to Aeris, “The island… The research team!”
“The island… I can barely even remember it now. Are you sure it was an island? I thought it was a cave,” the second of the men replied.
“You’re the people I was sent to find!” Cloud suddenly shouted, “I was sent… We were sent to find you. There are… there are others looking for us!” How could he have forgotten? It had been chased from his mind completely until now… but Tifa had to be looking for him… and Yuffie… and even the Turks.
“Others? Do you think they can find us here?” asked the woman.
“I don’t know,” Cloud replied, sullenly, but there was still hope… wasn’t there?
“I doubt it,” said the second of the male voices.
———-
One by one, they made their way down the ladder. Above them, Kaji, Yuffie’s little dragon, could be heard whining softly. The baby hadn’t taken well to the idea of being left behind, but as Reno had repeatedly pointed out to Yuffie, it never would have been able to climb down the ladder, and even assuming it was old enough to fly… which Reno doubted, since their mysterious visitor had been able to capture it in the first place… there just wasn’t room in the elevator shaft for it to spread its wings. So instead, Yuffie had said a mournful goodbye to the little dragon, promising to come back for it as soon as she could, and left it on the floor above them. It had poked its head through the partially opened doors and watched them descend, crying plaintively the whole time… so much so that Yuffie had almost climbed back up. Unfortunatly, she’d have had to climb right over Reno and Elena to do that, and the Turk wasn’t about to give way to the ninja just so she could run off and console her stupid pet… not that his presence stopped her from trying. She had almost knocked him off the ladder… as it was, his flashlight had plunged to an untimely death.
“I said I was sorry,” said Yuffie, calling up to Reno, who had refused to say a word to her ever since.
“Just keep moving,” Reno growled. If he’d fallen, he would have probably ended up taking Yuffie right along with him… as well as Tifa and Rude, both of whom were below them. Only Elena was relatively safe, having been the last to begin the descent. It didn’t sit particularly well with him, coming so dangerously close to such a loss. They could all have ended up dead.
They continued down in silence for a time. The shaft was long, the second subterranean level of the building having been constructed at the same depth as the Mako fountain. It was close to a three hundred foot climb. Moreover, they still hadn’t encountered the elevator car. In the back of his mine, Reno hoped that it was waiting for them at the bottom, as opposed to hanging precariously over their heads.
“I think I see the bottom!” Tifa’s voice echoed up from below. Reno glanced down at the spot of light a good fifty feet beneath him. Whatever Tifa saw in the glow of her flashlight was considerably farther down, and he couldn’t make it out from his position.
“‘Bout damn time… I was gettin’ sick of climbing,” Reno muttered.
“Me, too,” Elena’s voice agreed from up above. He couldn’t see even the outline of her body when he glanced up. Without warning, there was a sharp crack from nearly the exact position from which Reno had just heard her voice, followed by a startled scream, a cry of “Reno!”, and a flurry of panicked movement. A loud clang rang out, and Reno felt the ladder vibrate slightly as though something had just struck it.
“Elena!” he gasped, one arm hooking itself instinctively around the nearest rung of the ladder. He barely had time to snatch blindly at her as she tumbled past him, fingers hooking into the fabric of her jacket in a death grip. Her plunging weight nearly pulled him off of the ladder as well, and he was sure that the sickening popping sound his shoulder had just made couldn’t have been a good thing.
“Elena…” he grunted, straining to hang onto both her and the ladder, “You need to go on a diet…” By now, his shoulder was protesting painfully, and it was all he could do to keep his fingers clenched in their precarious grip. White spots appeared before his eyes, and he shook his head to clear away the haze that the pain was causing.
“Elena… I can’t hold you… much longer…” he said, gritting his teeth. Though what really worried him was that the other Turk wasn’t moving… She was completely unresponsive. ‘Not good,’ he thought.
“Hang on Reno… I’m coming!” Yuffie called out.
“Hurry!” He could hear her climbing toward them, her boots ringing out on the rungs of the ladder, and at the same time, Tifa swung the flashlight beam up towards them. Reno could see Elena a bit more clearly now. He’d caught her by the the back of her jacket, and he briefly wonder how it was that she hadn’t simply slipped out of the garment when he’d grabbed on. The trickle of crimson on the side of her head, explained the loud clang he’d heard when she fell. By the looks of things, she was out cold.
He glanced down at Yuffie. Already the fabric was sliding out of his grasp. He closed his eyes, willing himself to hold on, just a little longer. It was only a matter of seconds before Yuffie took hold of the unconscious Turk, taking some of the weight off of Reno’s arm, but it seemed like days.
“Got her?” Reno asked.
“Yeah, I got her,” Yuffie grunted, wrapping an arm securely around Elena’s waist. Rude wasn’t far behind, and a moment later, he too was supporting the other Turk. Reno groaned and forced his aching fingers to release their grip.
“Get her down,” he said, flexing the abused digits, and wincing as he tried to raise his arm, only to find that the motion sent a jolt of agony coursing through him. ‘Broken or just dislocated?’ he wondered as he rested his forhead against the cool metal of the ladder. Either way, the climb down was going to be loads of fun. For a time, he didn’t move. That had been close… Far, far too close. Finally, he, too, started down again, slowly and being overly mindful of his shoulder… not that it helped much. Everything he did seemed to jar it ever so slightly. Minutes seemed to grow in length as he crept down at an agonizingly slow pace, having the use of only one arm.
“Almost there, Reno!” Yuffie called up to him. He paused and looked down. The others were already at the bottom. Another thirty feet and he was home free. Elena was propped up against the side of the shaft apparently dazed, but moving every now and then, and Tifa had the flashlight trained on him. At last, he joined them.
“Fuck,” he groaned, and sighed with relief as he allowed himself to lean back against the wall and slide to a seated position on the floor, “Is she alright?”
“… More or less,” said Rude, whose sunglasses had been stashed in his pocket, having been a hinderance during the dark climb down. Soft brown eyes now stared at him appraisingly, and Reno almost didn’t recognize him for a moment. It was rare indeed to see the man without his trademark accessory.
“I… I’m ok, Reno…” said a very subdued Elena.
“Are you alright?” Yuffie asked.
“More or less… Shoulder’s killin’ me, though,” Reno replied, greatly relieved to hear Elena’s voice, “Of course, with my track record somethin’s probably broken…”
Rude frowned, and slowly eased Reno’s jacket off.
“… Don’t think so. Shoulder’s just out of joint,” he said, “… This is gonna hurt.”
That was all the warning he got. Reno had bare moments to brace himself as Rude took hold of his upper arm with one hand and pulled, his other hand pushing back against the Turk’s side, and Reno bit his lower lip to keep from crying out until, with a pop, his shoulder snapped back into place. Reno sighed in relief as the pain was greatly reduced to more managable levels.
“I ever tell you your bedside manner sucks?” he asked, grinning at Rude.
“…”
———-
It was a strange thing to watch. Tifa had remained frozen, simply observing. She’d only barely had the presence of mind to aim the flashlight at the two Turks when she had realized what was going on, the sight of Reno desparately holding onto Elena still etched in her mind. The pain had shown through on his face, undeniable even as far away as she was from the action, yet he had refused to let go until Yuffie and Rude had taken her from him.
He only surprised her more when the first thing he’d asked when he reached the bottom was about Elena. Was this really the same man she had long convinced herself had no conscience or moral fiber whatsoever?
“Well? What are we doin’ sitting around here? Thought we came down here to find Strife,” Reno said, climbing to his feet. The five of them forced the doors of the shaft open and stepped into the large room beyond. Rude carried Elena and set her down against the wall. Reno knealt down beside her.
“Still in one piece?” he asked, tilting her face up to look at her.
“Just a… a little dizzy. I guess I hit my head,” she said, blinking woozily.
“Hey, Rude… Got a Restore materia on ya?” he asked. The other Turk nodded, the cool green sphere already in hand. It glowed as he began to cast the spell, the soft light within it swirling rapidly beneath the crystalline surface. And suddenly, the sphere shattered into dust, sending tiny sparks of light scattering into the air, whirling away in all directions for a moment, and then surging back together into a wave of energy that circled them like a ribbon of light for a moment before sinking downward a bit, and rocketting off towards the far wall, which it then vanished through.
“Well… That was… different,” Reno said, blinking in surprise.
“… Very.”
“What happened?” Tifa asked, examining the section of the wall where the light had disappeared.
“I guess that’s what she meant by absorption…” Yuffie said suddenly. All four of the others stared at her as though she’d grown a second head.
“What who meant?” Reno and Tifa chorused simultaneously, and the each looked at the other with a glare. Yuffie choked back a laugh at their expressions.
“That log book we found upstairs, Reno… I told you earlier that that Dr. Umeshi person had some weird stuff to say,” she replied, rolling her eyes and giving the Turk a ‘you-never-listen-do-you?’ look.
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