Sunrise
Part 3: Mine and Thine
Let’s be very clear on one point… the preacher-man was not a church preacher. Far from it, in fact. I’m sure that comes as a huge shock to you. Oh look… There’s that sarcasm again. The preacher-man was the last person I ever wanted to get involved with, but as it turned out, I didn’t have much of a choice.
I mean, it’s not like I could run away from the members of his “flock” when they found me, beaten all to hell and lying in that alley. I couldn’t even see straight. So in the true spirit of weirdos and fanatics everywhere, they took me to their leader.
Let me tell ya, this guy was nuts. If it weren’t for that fact that reception down there was so crappy, I’d have said he’d seen one too many of those television evangelist shows. ‘Cept it wasn’t exactly salvation this guy was preaching. He had all the answers. He was infaliable. He thought he was a god. And he thought he should be worshipped. His flock was made up of people like me. Kids who didn’t have anywhere to go, or who couldn’t get away when his Angels of Grace, as he termed them, came calling.
He was the kind of guy that smart people steered clear of on the street. Only came out at night, and he always had some of his angels with him. Remember I told you that the kids who didn’t learn to be careful tended to disappear? Well guess who a lot of them ended up with…
In addition to being a broker for cheap labor, a trainer of thieves, and an all around pervert, he was also really difficult to get away from… and it wasn’t for lack of trying on my part.
As soon as I’d healed up enough that I could get around on my own two feet, I tried to walk out on him. That didn’t go over too well. Seemed the preacher-man felt I owed him… this was where I found out just how big a pervert the guy really was. Kinky doesn’t even begin to describe it, believe me. I learned to be grateful real quick.
After that I figured I’d be a good little boy for awhile and wait for a better opportunity to disappear… maybe head over to Sector 7. So I spent my days worshipping my new master, and my nights doing whatever I was told to do – most of which I’d rather forget. Still, some of it I enjoyed… like the trips to the Plate. I was ten the first time I was sent up. He had a contact up there who kept him supplied with the various merchandise he sold in the slums, while the preacher-man himself supplied the guy with… well, us.
Like most of the preacher-man’s Angels, I didn’t get to see much of the Plate. Most of the stuff I did was at night, and involved keeping to the shadows. Illegal deliveries, robberies, destruction of property… murder… whatever the guy needed done. Basically, we were expendable. If we got caught, it was no loss to anyone, and if we tried to rat him out… well, who’s gonna take the word of a delinquent from the slums over that of an upstanding businessman?
But so long as you could avoid getting caught, it was actually kinda fun. The one thing I really remember though, was the first time I saw a sunrise. I’d been out most of the night with a few of the others sent up from Sector 2, and we were due to head back. But we stopped at the edge of the Plate before we went back down into that pit, and watched the sun come up. It was just like mom had described. I didn’t really understand what was so great about it at the time. Yeah, sure it was pretty… if you liked that sort of thing… calming, even. But it happened everyday, right?
Still, I guess that kinda sticks in my mind ’cause it made me think of her. It was the first time I’d really thought about mom in a long time, and I started to miss her all over again.
There wasn’t much variation in my life for the next few years. It was basically “do what you’re told, and you won’t get in trouble”. By the time I was fourteen I’d pretty much established a nice little rhythm. No one messed with me so long as I didn’t make waves. I might have looked scrawny, but like they say, appearances can be deceiving. And then along came the Turks.
Nah… We’re not up to the part where I get recruited, and get the hell out of the slums yet. Heh… I wish. Would’ve made my life a lot easier, that’s for damn sure.
Yeah, yeah… I know. You want to know what the Turks had to do with this part of my life. I’m getting there… I’m getting there…
Turns out, the preacher-man was none too popular with El Presidente. And who does the president of Shin-Ra, Inc. call when he needs a pest exterminated? Why the Turks, of course. In this case, Tseng himself. I guess it was supposed to be a quick assassination. But it turned into a free-for-all when the new recruit old Tsengie was working with slipped up and gave the two of them away.
So what do I do? I jump right in, trying to keep them away from the preacher-man. Hey, what can I say? It was a pretty cushy life, all things considered. Better than starving on the streets, anyway.
So there’s Tseng, his usual cool and collected self, taking aim… and there’s the new recruit getting his ass kicked by twenty or thirty of us angels… so I figure I better do something about this. Now the smart thing to do would have been to get the fuck out of there. I mean, these guys were Shin-ra’s Turks, for fuck’s sake! But the level of relative comfort I was used to kinda overruled my common sense, and I decided to take on Tseng himself. Yeah… right. Great plan, Reno.
It happened amazingly fast. To this day, I’m still not entirely sure what he did. One second I’m running toward the guy, ready to tackle him, and the next, I’m on my back ten feet away with my arm bent in a direction no arm should ever be bent in. From the cries of pain, I was pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who’d been on the receiving end of one of Tseng’s defensive moves. The next thing I heard was a single gunshot, and by the time I’d recovered enough to figure out what was happening, Tseng was gone and the preacher-man was dead. The other Turk was dead, too… and not a pretty sight to see, either.
When it was over, the preacher-man’s angels went our separate ways, and after awhile I met up with a different Angel.
-end part 3-
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