Taking Care of Reno: Advent Children
Chapter 7: The Meeting
“Hey…”
“Yeah?”
“Think they’re backin’ off.”
“…”
“Let the President know, will ya?”
Rude wordlessly disappeared from the room and headed downstairs. Reno listened as his footsteps faded, but never turned away from the window. He glared through the binoculars at his targets.
Had it been up to him, he and Rude would’ve been out there, beating Tseng and Elena’s location out of those bastards the moment they’d first turned up. Rufus had expressly forbidden it… and so he was stuck watching from a distance. Worse, he was pretty sure they knew he was watching.
It had started moments after Reno had handed the phone off to Rufus. He’d stepped outside for some air… and in the distance, had spotted the telltale clouds of dust rising from the dry ground. He’d brushed past his compatriots and gone upstairs for a better view. Two of the three had ridden in on motorcycles, racing back and forth across the plains, while the third – most likely the one on the phone with the President – had remained on a hilltop, observing. What their purpose was, Reno hadn’t been able to figure out at first… until he’d spotted the fourth rider.
It hadn’t taken him long to recognize the man as Cloud Strife. That asshole’s ridiculous haircut was probably recognizable even from space. Cloud hadn’t seen them coming… or if he had, he hadn’t pegged them as a threat. The next thing Reno knew, those assholes were tearing across open ground, chasing one another… chasing Cloud… charging him. Like they were playing a game.
Just like the game they were playing with Shinra.
Reno sighed and leaned back, rubbing his eyes. It was getting dangerously close to two weeks.
When Kadaj… as he’d apparently introduced himself to Rufus before the Turk had finally stormed out… had called him using Elena’s PHS, it had almost been a relief in a way. He’d thought the not knowing, at least, was finally over. He wasn’t so lucky. Kadaj hadn’t said a damn thing about the two missing Turks beyond his initial taunting. He hadn’t tried to ransom them, or threatened to kill them if Shinra didn’t simply hand over what they wanted. He hadn’t acknowledged that they still had them at all… not even when Rufus had demanded they be returned safely before he would discuss terms.
It had left Reno feeling ill. If you had two prisoners you thought you could exchange for something, you didn’t hide the fact. In his mind, that meant that either Tseng and Elena had escaped… or they were both dead. And he prayed to every deity he could name that it was the former.
But it was getting harder and harder to hold out hope for an escape. If the pair really had found a means to get themselves out of there… where in the nine hells were they? Why had no one heard from them yet?
And the longer it went on, the worse it got for him at night. Thus far, he’d managed to avoid any further panic attacks… but he certainly wasn’t sleeping well. When he slept at all. There had been one or two nights this past week he hadn’t even bothered trying, even though he knew he couldn’t avoid it indefinitely. For Elena’s sake, he couldn’tlet himself break. He wouldn’t. Not until he knew one way or the other, anyway. And if she was gone… well, frankly, he wasn’t sure what might happen, but he’d deal with that when the news finally came.
The redhead lifted the binoculars back to his eyes and scanned the plains. The two men harassing Strife had definitely broken off pursuit entirely now, as had the dog-like beasts they’d somehow conjured.
The creatures had been unlike anything Reno had ever come across before. They were so lean, they were almost skeletal. Nothing but muscle and bone. The redhead had been quite some distance away, but he’d definitely been able to see claws. Very large claws.
Cloud, meanwhile, had paused looking back at them as they retreated, and Reno imagined that he was wondering much the same thing the Turk was at the moment. Namely… What in Ifrit’s name was that all about?
At last, the Solider-turned-delivery-boy turned and continued on his way… towards Healin Lodge.
“Sir?”
Tseng gave a faint groan as he forced himself into a sitting position. Elena shook her head and rushed over to him, gently pushing him back down.
“You shouldn’t be over-exerting yourself, Tseng,” she chastised, and received a glower in response.
“I have no intention of simply laying here all day until rescue arrives. I’ve had enough of that sort of thing to last me a lifetime.”
Elena sighed and removed her hand from his chest, allowing him to sit up.
“I’m telling Rufus,” she lightly teased.
“Be my guest. I’ll happily inform him of the same,” the Turk leader replied.
“Then I’m telling Ward.”
He eyed her appraisingly, and grudgingly settled back down. “… I would prefer you didn’t.”
The younger Turk snickered softly in response. Even Tseng could be cowed by the authoritative doctor.
“It’s really not as bad as it looks. I’ve had far worse beatings,” Tseng said dismissively, before quickly adding “Though none specifically come to mind at the moment. Not to change the subject, but I don’t suppose you happened to catch sight of our ride while you were enjoying yourself on the beach?”
Elena settled herself beside him on the bedroll, hugging her knees to her chest.
“No. But Vincent said it will probably be a few more days.”
Tseng nodded and propped himself up against the wall of their shelter, before the pair fell into a companionable silence.
“May I make a request?” he suddenly asked.
“Of course.”
Tseng smirked slightly. “I would very much like to be present to see the expression on Reno’s face when you tell him he’s going to be a father.”
Elena giggled and looked over at him. “I’m giving serious consideration to having Rude record it for posterity, sir…” she replied, and the Wutaiian Turk laughed. She let her head lean back, gazing up at the canvas roof. “Do you… Do you think he’ll be happy about it?”
“I take it this wasn’t planned, then…”
“… No.”
“I think that, so long as you are happy, Reno will be happy. Beyond that… to be honest, I’ve never heard him express any desire for children. But then, it was something of a shock to me when I learned that he’d proposed, as well. He’d never expressed any desire to get married, either.” Tseng chuckled softly. “Actually, his opinion on marriage was quite well known amongst the Turks when he was younger.”
“What do you mean?”
Tseng shook his head. “Just that he used to be very… open… about his disdain for the idea of ceremonially pledging oneself to another. Particularly the handful of times other Turks or their family members were considering it,” he replied, and smiled. “And then he fell in love himself… which I think gave him an entirely new perspective on the subject.”
Elena returned the smile, and glanced down at the pair of rings on her finger, her thumb gently turning her engagement ring behind her wedding band. She’d been more than a little surprised, too. She hadn’t expected it… well… ever, really, knowing Reno. And particularly not as the world was ending. Rude had later told her that Reno had had the ring for nearly two months before he finally asked her.
“You have nothing to worry about, Elena. No matter what his plans for the two of you may have been… he’ll love his child as much as he loves you. And he already loves you more than anything in the world.”
Elena laughed quietly. That, at least, had never been in doubt.
“I know he does.”
When the door was shoved inward, Reno was ready for it. His EMR caught the edge of the oversized blade in mid-air, and he pushed back to deflect it. His eyes widened slightly when he found there was no give at all. He’d known the bastard was strong, but… damn. The redhead backed off slightly and and brought the mag-rod around for a side attack against his opponent, charging him. If he even wanted to make a dent, he was going to have to put his entire weight behind the blow.
Cloud Strife neatly side-stepped at the last second.
Reno’s momentum carried him straight past the man, and through the still-open door behind him. He spun, intent on getting in at least one decent shot before Strife laid him out flat… and came to a very abrupt halt as the door was slammed in his face.
He shrugged and pushed it open, intending to concede. Why Rufus had asked him to challenge the son of a bitch in the first place was beyond him. He was a good fighter in his own right… but Cloud was on a whole other level, and they all knew it.
“Okay… So you’re –” The door shut again, and this time, he heard the deadbolt click into place. ” – good.”
He pressed an ear to the door and heard the telltale sound of approaching footsteps.
“Heh… Yeah, Rude! Lookin’ sharp!” he called out in encouragement, knowing that his partner was next in line for whatever little game it was Rufus was playing. It was times like this when the first floor’s distinct shortage of windows annoyed the crap out of him. He’d wanted to watch.
It was, ostensibly, a security feature. Before Healin Lodge was a medical facility, it had been a vacation spot for top level Shinra employees and their families. As such, all of the buildings – the one built exclusively for the Shinra family, in particular – were designed to keep out any riffraff that might be foolish enough to follow them up.
That wasn’t to say that there weren’t any windows down here… Hell, there was a row of massive picture windows directly opposite his current position, that looked out towards the falls. But to reach them, he’d have to go all the way around, shimmy along a very narrow ledge above a very long drop, and potentially miss out on something important in the process. If he’d known the fucker was gonna lock him out, he’d have left the back door open.
The familiar sound of fighting, however, never met his ears. Instead, he now heard Rufus speaking, muffled though it was.
“Rufus Shinra. So… the rumors are true. They really did put you back together again after Midgar. More or less,” Strife stated, then paused a moment. “You’re still babysitting him? Do I feel sorry for you guys…”
Rude said nothing, as far as Reno could hear, and he smirked. For quite some time, a fair number of people believed Rufus had died in that attack. Truth be told, his injuries were relatively minor… but he’d stayed out of the spotlight for so long afterward that rumors had begun to spread well before he’d been infected with Geostigma. The Turks had let them spread. It was safer for him if no one was quite sure what the truth was.
“When Weapon attacked the city –” Rufus began.
“What do you want from me?”
“– my Turks pulled me out of the building –”
“Who were those guys that attacked me?” Cloud demanded.
“– before the upper floors collapsed –”
“I’m out of here,” he said flatly. Reno had sort of figured on this being less than simple. Strife was not a fan.
“We need your help, Cloud,” Rufus replied, apparently dropping his pretense.
“Not interested.”
“I acknowledge that Shinra owes the planet a great deal. It was Shinra that nearly destroyed it. Therefore, it’s our responsibility to do what we can to set things right.”
Reno glared at the door. If the fun and games were over, and the President was moving on to the real reason he’d summoned Strife, it was about damn time someone let him back in. This wasn’t part of the plan.
“I’m still out here…” he called out, irritated.
“As a first step… we began an investigation in Sephiroth’s wake, to ensure that what happened once never happens again. Can you guess where we started looking?”
“Heh… the northern crater!” Reno helpfully piped up, hoping that, if Rufus was going to ignore his plight, Cloud might at least show some mercy.
“Sephiroth is dead,” Cloud replied, and Reno sighed. Apparently, he was going to have to take matters into his own hands. Ear still pressed against the door, he fished his lock picks from his jacket pocket, and selected one.
“Still… We had to be sure. Would you like to know what we found?” Rufus asked, as Reno slipped the pick into the lock. He hated these damn things. Top of the line, and marketed as unpickable. The first time he’d accidentally locked himself out of the cabin, it had taken him almost a full seven minutes to get it open. And both Rude and Elena had been inside the whole time, snickering quietly as they listened to him swear at it. He was fairly sure the subsequent four times he’d been trapped on the wrong side of the locked door hadn’t been an accident, either.
“Nothing…” Rufus continued. “We found nothing. You can relax. However… things didn’t go quite as planned.”
Reno snorted softly in contempt. That was a bit of an understatement. They’d come home short by two Turks.
“We were… interrupted. By the same three who attacked you. We don’t know who they are. Their leader calls himself Kadaj.”
“Kadaj?”
Reno only just caught the reply. He’d had to move away from the door slightly to see what he was doing, and both men seemed to have dropped the volume noticeably. The next minute or two, for him at least, consisted of muffled, meaningless nonsense. His eyes narrowed at the lock. This was the sixth goddamned time. That settled it. Security be damned… he was hiding an Ifrit-forsaken key out here later.
“What does this have to do with me?” he suddenly heard Cloud ask, and he smirked.
“We’re friends, aren’t we?” he shot back, unable to resist goading him just a little. The door shook with the impact of what Reno could only assume was Cloud’s boot against it, and the lockpick slipped from his hand. The redhead made a slight sound of concern as it dropped, and snatched at the falling instrument. He missed… and the pick disappeared between the narrow gap between the boards of the walkway.
“Motherfucker…” he hissed, as he listened to it clatter off the stones, bouncing down the into the undergrowth in front of the cabin. His favorite pick. It just figured. He dropped to the ground, peering through the slot. There was no sign of it. For a few brief moments, he debated going down after it, but ultimately decided it would have to wait. Reno stood up just as the locked door opened and swung inward slightly.
“What’s all this about ‘Mother’?” Cloud asked, pausing his bid to leave.
“Why? Did Kadaj mention something?” the President asked.
“Rufus…” he began in a warning tone, “If you’re hiding something…”
“I’d never keep a secret. Not from a friend,” Rufus replied, and it was only through years of practice that Reno managed to keep a straight face at that claim. “You must want to learn all you can about Geostigma… if only for those orphans you live with. Surely you’d like to see them happy and healthy again… All we want is to rebuild our world, Cloud.”
“But…”
“Come on, Cloud. Think about it,” Reno added, “With you’re help, we could even rebuild Shinra.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he knew Rufus was going to murder him for saying that. Strife definitely held a grudge against all things Shinra. Not that the Turk could really blame him for that. He certainly had the right, based on what he’d learned of the man after Sephiroth’s defeat.
“Not interested,” Cloud stated, and shoved the redhead out of the way.
“Reno!” the two men inside chorused in a mixture of anger and exasperation.
“… Uh… heh… Somethin’ I said?” he offered, lamely, as a motorcycle roared to life and then quickly began to fade away as it took off down the cliffside road.
“You simply cannot keep your mouth shut, can you?” Rufus groused. “There’s always some idiotic comment you have to make.”
Reno stood in the doorway, chastised.
“… Sorry, sir.”
Rufus glared at him from beneath his blanket for a moment longer before finally gesturing for him to come inside. “No matter. I never truly expected him to simply join us anyway. My purpose was merely to pass on the information. I suspect that, eventually, he’ll have no choice but to get involved.”
“Guess it was still a stupid thing to do, though…” Reno said. He kicked the door shut and threw the deadbolt.
“Yes. Don’t do it again,” Rufus replied, as he wheeled himself out of the room, leaving the two Turks behind. Rude moved to stand beside the redhead… and promptly smacked him in the back of the head.
“Ow! For fuck’s sake, I just said it was a stupid thing to do. You don’t have to beat the lesson into me…”
Rude smirked slightly but didn’t comment.
“Hmph… so we got Cloud on board. Sort of. Now we just gotta find ‘Lena and the boss.” He groaned and threw himself down onto the couch, folding his hands behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling. “You heard anything from your contacts yet?”
“No,” Rude said with a heavy sigh. He moved to gaze out the windows at the back of the room. “Nothing yet.”
“Still can’t believe this shit’s happening. Again. You think those fuckers that are after Jenova really have somethin’ to do with Sephiroth? Or are they just… ya know… fanatics or some shit?”
“Don’t know. But I’m heading to Edge later. Gonna see if the Shinra office there’s heard anything I haven’t.”
“Tch… The office. Who’da thunk so many people from Midgar’d come back to work after what went down? And they say the Turks are dedicated. Maybe I had somethin’ there. Maybe we really could rebuild Shinra Company.”
“Not like it went anywhere.”
“Yeah… but it’s not the same, and you know it,” the redhead replied. “People used to respect Shinra. Now… tch. Now they only like havin’ us around ’cause we still got enough money to fund shit.”
“Those of us who survived have a lot to atone for.”
Reno was silent for a moment. “Yeah… Can’t argue with that. We damn near obliterated the fuckin’ planet. Seriously, man… How the fuck do you atone for somethin’ like that?” he asked. He didn’t wait for an answer. This was a conversation he and Rude had already had countless times before. And it was always significantly less depressing when they were drunk. “Two years. Seems like a lifetime ago, ya know?”
Rude chuckled, and moved to sit next to his partner on the couch. “You got married two years ago, too… That seem like a lifetime ago, too?” he asked, shoving the younger man’s feet aside to make room for himself. Reno grinned slightly.
“No… that seems like it happened yesterday.” The grin quickly faded, however. “Hope they’re alive,” he added, sitting up turning away slightly. He swallowed sharply against the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. Rude let his arm settle around the redhead’s shoulders.
“Don’t start thinking like that. They’re gonna be fine. You’ll see.”
“What if they’re not?” he breathed, “What the fuck do we do if they’re not? What the fuckdo I do if she’s not? It won’t just break me, Rude. It’ll kill me.”
“That’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.”
Reno felt his friend’s grip tighten around him, and closed his eyes. If something really did happen to Elena, and she never came back, he didn’t think even Rude would be strong enough to hold him together.
“… Our second anniversary’s next month,” he whispered.
“And you’re gonna celebrate it with her. You can’t start obsessing over the worst case scenario. You know what’ll happen if you do.”
He’d be useless… that’s what would happen. Trapped in the mire of his own mind. Probably even worse than he’d been after Sector Seven.
“Yeah. I know,” he replied, taking a deep breath and sitting up straight. “I’m not goin’ down that path again. Don’t fuckin’ let me.”
Rude squeezed his shoulder one last time and got to his feet. “I’m making pizza tonight. What do you want on it? And don’t you dare say pineapple. Pineapple does not belong on pizza.”
Reno snorted softly. “Bullshit,” he shot back. “And you’re willingly lowering yourself to the level a filthy pizza chef? Man… you really must be worried about me.”
Before Rude could retort, the room lights flickered. A small movement near the door caught the redhead’s eye, and he slowly got to his feet, staring in horror as thick black smoke began to pour through the cracks. It swirled lazily near the floor for a few moments, and both Turks took a step back.
“Get Rufus outta here…” Reno said, urgently. “Take him out the back.”
He didn’t have the chance. The smoke began to take on a new form, coalescing into a figure. By the time Rude had reached the hallway, it was too late.
Kadaj stepped forward, his body slowly becoming more and more solid. He stood before Reno, and smiled cruelly.
“Found you,” he said, with a malicious laugh.
~end chapter 7~
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