Taking Care of Reno: Meteorfall
Chapter 12: Betrayal
“What’s taking them so long?” Rufus muttered to himself. Tseng had been gone for hours and afternoon was quickly fading into evening. He’d spent most of his time exploring the house… and trying not to look as though he were overly interested in its contents whenever Rude turned up to check on him. If he hadn’t actually been told that the Turk had once lived here, he doubted he ever would have guessed. Aside from that single photo on the mantle, there was nothing to suggest that Rude had any connection whatsoever to this place.
It was actually slightly disturbing. His own father wasn’t exactly the most outwardly affectionate man, but Rufus had never had cause to think he was truly unwanted… not even when he’d been banished to Junon for all those months. Upon his return, he’d found everything in the family manor just as he’d left it, waiting for him to come back. This, though… It was as if Rude’s father had gone to great lengths to pretend he’d never existed.
He couldn’t help but wonder if the Turk had fallen into a situation similar to Tseng’s… and if so, what he’d done to deserve it. Tseng’s father, at least, had a valid reason for hating his son. This didn’t feel like disownment, though. This seemed somehow… sadder. If that was even possible. He still very clearly remembered how distraught the Wutaiian Turk had been following his sister’s death… and how frighteningly unlike himself he’d been after his return from his homeland a couple of weeks later.
Rufus had been only a teenager at the time… but he’d seen the change in his guardian. And it had scared him. It had, he recalled, scared Reno, as well, which in turn had worried Rufus even more. The slum rat spent far more time in Tseng’s company than he did. And if he was concerned…
He shook his head, banishing that particular memory. It wasn’t a time he cared to dwell on. For a short while, he’d been thoroughly convinced that Tseng would leave and he’d never see him again. He’d even gone so far as to beg his father to raise his pay… give him more vacation time… whatever it took to bribe him into staying.
He’d been a stupid little boy back then. Now he knew that none of that would have convinced Veld’s second-in-command to remain with the company if he’d really been intent on resigning… but back then, money had been the answer to everything. It had come as quite a shock when he’d finally learned that there were, in fact, some things money couldn’t buy him. Come to thing of it, Tseng had been the one to teach him that lesson.
Rufus climbed the stairs to the second floor, fingers leaving faint trails in the dust on the banister. There were only three doors at the top. One led to a cramped bathroom… another to a somewhat less cramped, but still rather tiny by his standards, bedroom. The third, he expected to be a second bedroom… but when he peered inside, it was obvious it had been used for storage.
“Hmph… Used to be my room.”
The President jumped violently and spun around, biting back several low-brow invectives that only years of lessons in manners and poise prevented him from uttering. “Don’t do that!” he hissed. “It’s bad enough I have to worry about Tseng sneaking up on me constantly…”
“Sorry, sir,” Rude replied. Rufus was almost certain the man was suppressing a decidedly smug grin. He scowled and shut the door, a little more forcefully than was strictly necessary.
“Tseng asked me to tell you he’s been delayed. They won’t be able to retrieve the Keystone until later tonight. Should be back sometime tomorrow morning.”
That figured. This entire endeavor had been little more than one big delay.
“And the airship? Have you heard anything about it?”
“It should be here in the morning, too,” Rude replied. The executive growled in irritation and brushed passed him, heading for the stairs. Maybe he could find something less depressing to entertain himself with downstairs. He’d noticed a bookcase earlier. That, at least, had potential. He was vaguely aware of the Turk following him.
Rufus found the little collection of literature again without much trouble. Much of it seemed to be devoted to airplanes and mechanics in general. There were a number of service manuals, flight manuals, and books containing wiring and hydrolics diagrams. Not exactly his usual fare… and he wasn’t quite that desperate just yet.
“Your father had rather… single-minded… taste in reading,” he commented.
“He didn’t read. Those were my mother’s. She… liked to fix things. Try the top shelf, sir,” Rude suggested on his way to the kitchen. Rufus hummed in acknowledgment and turned his attention upwards slightly.
“Ah… That’s more like it,” he sighed in relief, at the small group of titles that were more literary in nature. They weren’t exactly Loveless or any of the classical Wutaiian tragedies he enjoyed… but they were significantly less mind-numbing than technical manuals. He settled on what appeared to be a mystery novel that looked like it had seen far more handling than the others, and made himself comfortable in the armchair he’d laid claim to earlier in the day.
Elena yawned and wondered why she’d volunteered to take the first watch once they’re returned to the desert. It was beyond boring… Aside from the massive structure that held the Gold Saucer aloft, there was nothing for miles and few creatures dared venture so far into the barren landscape. She didn’t even have anyone to talk to, as Tseng and Reno were napping in preparation for the late night rendezvous with their spy. Another few minutes, and she’d wake the Turk leader to take her place.
She took a sip from one of the bottles of water they’d confiscated from the restaurant in Costa del Sol and hopped out of the helicopter to stretch her legs a little. The sun was still high, and it beat down on the parched earth beneath her feet as she circled the aircraft. She understood why Tseng had wanted to stay close to the saucer in the hours leading up to the planned heist, but she was starting to wish the place wasn’t surrounded by an unforgiving desert. At least it was a dry heat…
There wasn’t much shade to be found out in the open, so she settled herself on the lip of the helicopter’s open door. Thankfully, there was a breeze… though it didn’t do much to cool her. Elena reached into her pocket and withdrew the mysterious materia, holding it in her palm so that the sunlight shone through the crystal. It was hard to describe how it felt. Fire materia made her fingertips burn… Ice materia numbed her skin with cold… Lightning sent little jolts of electricity dancing across her palm. Those had all been so easy to identify, with no magic experience whatsoever. Even with the non-elemental types, she’d at least been able to venture a guess. Barrier materia felt like ribbons wrapping themselves around her hand when she held it, for instance. And her brief experience with Haste materia… one she’d very quickly decided she really didn’t like… left her feeling like she’d had far too much coffee until she’d set it down again. Cure hadn’t really had a physical sensation… but she had almost immediately picked up on the sharp odor of antiseptic she had always associated with hospitals, and which dissipated as soon as she’d slotted the sphere into her armlet.
This one, though… It wasn’t that she got nothing from it. It was just very, very subtle. She was almost tempted to describe it as a warmth… but not in the sense of it being warm to the touch. It made her feel warm inside. Not as though she were protected or shielded… more like… well, she actually couldn’t quite come up with something to compare it to. And maybe that was the problem… the feeling was familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
She briefly considered just trying to cast something with it… but during their training sessions, Tseng had told her that could be dangerous. If you didn’t know what sort of magic you were using, the results could be very unpredictable. Besides which, it was a raw crystal. Processed materia was spherical for a reason. It made focusing it’s power into a spell and directing it towards the intended target much easier for the user. Someone adept with magic wouldn’t have too much difficultly with raw materia, but Elena was still learning. Shiva only knew what she might end up hitting with it…
She sighed and pocketed her find. She’d just have to wait until they had the chance to visit Junon again and hope that Lieutenant Commander Nacelle had better luck figuring it out that the rest of them had.
Elena glanced at her watch, and realized that her shift was over. She got up and climbed back into the aircraft, kneeling beside her superior and shaking him gently. Tseng lifted his head, peering up at her, somewhat sleepily.
“My turn, I suppose…” he said quietly, and Elena nodded.
“Yes, sir. Things have been quiet… Though I saw an awfully suspicious-looking lizard a little while ago.”
The Wutaiian Turk chuckled softly as he got up and straightened his tie. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye out. Get some sleep while you still can.”
She nodded again, and made her way over to where Reno was passed out on his back, one arm draped over his eyes to block out the sunlight, and laid down next to him, curling against his side. She let her head rest gently on his chest, one arm creeping across his stomach to hold him closer.
“Someday you will have to explain to me how you managed to do that without waking him up…” the Turk leader’s voice whispered softly from from the doorway. He shook his head, amused, and disappeared from view.
Rude went about slicing vegetables for his stir fry almost automatically. For once, his mind really wasn’t on his cooking… but it was getting close to dinnertime, and the President would be getting hungry. Being here, though… It was a lot more distracting than he’d thought it would be.
He’d studiously avoided coming home for years. There had been no point, anyway. His father hadn’t wanted to see him. He’d tried two or three times when he’d been younger, coming home for holidays and once even for his father’s birthday, but all of his visits had been met with cold indifference. He’d finally given up.
And then his father had died. Rude hadn’t even known he’d been sick… He hadn’t bothered to tell him. He’d had to hear it from the man’s friends at the funeral. That had hurt… perhaps even more than the death itself. It hadn’t even been a sudden illness. His father had know for nearly two years that he was dying a slow and likely unpleasant death… and not a word.
Rude coaxed the carrots and broccoli into a bowl and started in on the onions and peppers.
It had all started the day his mother had died. He’d been sixteen at the time, and unlike his father’s death, hers had come out of nowhere.
Beatrice Montgomery was perhaps one of the most talented engineers Shinra Company had ever employed. She was also warm, funny, outgoing… all of the things Rude tended not to be around all but those closest to him. In that, he took after his father more. She was a brilliant mechanic… and was even selected as part of the crew of the Shinra No. 24… one of several of the No. 26 rocket’s failed predecessors. In fact, it had been her engine design that had eventually been approved for the No. 26.
Sadly, she hadn’t lived long enough to see her engine in action… The No. 24 failed at launch. The explosion hadn’t looked like a bad one from the ground. It sent spectators running for cover, certainly, but there was very little damage outside of the rocket. Inside was another story. Somehow, the rocket’s fuselage had contained most of the blast. No one inside survived.
His father changed after that. A bit of a recluse by nature, he became downright antisocial, keeping to himself more and more, and leaving his delivery business in his son’s hands… quite a responsibility, given that Rude had only been flying solo for about three months at the time. Rude almost never saw him outside of meal times. Virtually never spoke to him. His father shut him out, and it took him years before he really began to understand why.
The plain and simple fact was that he simply reminded his father too much of what he’d lost. The man couldn’t bear being around him… particularly after Rude had announced that he was going to Midgar as a recruit for the Turks. His father hadn’t been angry… just resigned. The look in his eyes was one of conviction that he was doing the right thing by pushing his son out of his life… because now, Rude would almost certainly die, much too young, in support of a company that didn’t care.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t until his very last visit home that he finally realized that. And by then, any effort he made was ignored. His presence was barely even acknowledged.
It wasn’t what his mother would have wanted for the two of them… he knew that. But he’d felt powerless to stop it, and eventually had simply accepted it. He didn’t want to cause his father more pain.
Rude pushed the finished vegetables off of the cutting board and into the bowl to join their friends, and turned his attention to the sauce, mincing garlic and ginger and adding it to a second bowl… this one filled with brown sugar and soy sauce. Red pepper flakes went in next, and then the slices of chicken to marinate while the rice cooked.
His father had taught him to fly… his mother had taught him to cook. Her mechanical prowess had never really rubbed off on him, but he’d always loved helping her in the kitchen. It was a skill he’d taken great pains to hone over the years, teaching himself new skills and new recipes, in part for his own enjoyment… but also because it made him feel like he had a part of her to hold onto that no one could take away from him. Even after he’d found himself a new family, he still clung to that.
He new family appreciated it, as well. He smirked slightly… even Reno, who half the time barely had time to taste his food before asking for seconds.
Speaking of Reno… he really needed to talk to him. The unexpectedly long stay in his hometown was bring up more than just memories of his childhood for him. He missed his friend. Ever since the redhead had gotten together with Elena… finally gotten together with her, he mused with a faint smile… he’d felt like the two of them had been growing apart. Being home had shone a rather unpleasantly bright light on that fact. It was much the same feeling he’d had when his father had begun to shut him out… and he couldn’t let that happen again. Reno was too important to him.
With luck, all three of them would be back in the morning, and he could say what he needed to say before things reached a point that it became a real problem.
Elena swatted at whatever was tickling her nose. It stopped and she let herself relax… only for the irritating sensation to return just as she was drifting off again. She tried again, and this time her hand made brief contact with her harasser. She heard a familiar snicker.
“Reno… cut it out…” the younger Turk muttered, not bothering to open her eyes. He thought waking her up with such tactics was hilarious. She mostly just found it annoying… though in a vaguely cute sort of way. It was one of the things she liked best about her lover. Such minor things made him so endlessly happy… and his happiness had a tendency to be contagious. Whatever he was tickling her with brushed teasingly against her upper lip, and she finally forced her eyes open, glaring at him halfheartedly. “… Seriously?”
The redhead grinned in the moonlight. “Sorry… Boss says ya gotta get up. We’re movin’ out in a few.”
With a quiet groan she sat up, rubbing her eyes. She would have sworn she’d just fallen asleep. Reno passed her a bottle of water and a pear, and she glanced up at him in curiosity wondering where he’d found that.
“Snagged a few snacks from the buffet before we left Costa del Sol. Saved one for ya.”
“Note that he saved nothing for me…” Tseng cut in with a faint laugh.
“Tch… You knew I grabbed ’em. It’s your own fault you didn’t help yourself before I got hungry again…”
The Turk leader shook his head. “You say that as if hunger is not a perpetual state for you…” he teased, which only caused Reno’s grin to widen. “Eat quickly,” he cautioned, “Reeve just messaged me that the rest of Avalanche has turned in for the night.”
Elena bit into the fruit as she clambered to her feet, and moved to settle into one of the passenger seats, but Tseng stopped her.
“Take the co-pilot’s seat, Elena. We won’t be landing and I’d like to handle the transfer personally. He is my double agent, after all…”
She nodded and headed for the cockpit instead, where Reno had already made himself comfortable and was thumbing through his own messages on his PHS.
“Wallace’s kid’s awake and on the radio like ya asked, boss.”
“Good. We may not need the leverage of a hostage, but it never hurts to be prepared.” His phone chimed. “Reeve has the Keystone. He’s heading for the rendezvous point now. Take us up.”
The copter lifted off, sending a cloud of dust and sand outwards from the blades’ downdraft. They headed for the Saucer.
“There…” Tseng’s voice said over their headsets. Elena spotted what was easily the oddest-looking creature she’d ever seen in her life emerging from one of the transport tunnels.
“S-sir?” she queried, somewhat disbelievingly, “Is that a…”
“Cat riding a giant moogle. Yes. I’m afraid it is. Don’t ask…” he responded as he moved toward the side door and stepped out onto the skid.
“Remind me to get to know that Reeve Tuesti better. Seems like a fun guy…” the redhead commented, with a not-so-subtle snicker. He swung them in closer to their target, but before the automaton could hand off the Keystone, Cloud Strife suddenly made his own appearance, accompanied by Aerith. Tuesti’s creation took off running.
“Ah, hell… Where the fuck’s he goin’?” the redhead muttered banking away from the amusement park and scanning the various platforms in search of their spy.
“Secondary rendezvous is at the Chocobo Square,” Tseng relayed.
“Got it…” Reno peeled off and circled around the structure, cutting frighteningly close to the raceway that wove its way around the central pillar.
“There he is!” Elena cried, pointing to the figure bounding down the stairs from the chocobo races. Cloud and Aerith weren’t far behind. The robot paused at the railing.
“Here! The Keystone!” is shouted, tossing it high towards Tseng. The Turk leader easily caught it.
“Well done!” he replied, and then switched back to his headset. “Reno… get us out of here.”
“On it, Boss,” Reno confirmed, and turned the aircraft back towards the desert.
Rufus woke the following morning in the same place he’d fallen asleep… nestled in the armchair. Though things weren’t quite the way he recalled leaving them. For one, his selected book had been plucked from his grasp and left on a small sidetable next to him, a slip of paper marking the spot where he’d left off. For another, a light blanket had been placed over him. He pushed it aside and stood up, yawning.
“Tch… ’bout time…” a somewhat disgruntled voice from the direction of the kitchen stated. “Boss said I couldn’t wake you up. Been waitin’ close to an hour now.”
The President rolled his eyes as he turned toward its source. “I’m so very sorry to have inconvenienced you.”
“Heh… You oughta be. Rude’s got this pain in the ass rule that he doesn’t serve breakfast ’til everyone’s at the table. I’m starvin’ to death thanks to you, sir.”
Rufus responded with a sneer. “Of course you are. You know… I think perhaps when this is over, I’ll institute dietary restrictions for all non-executive personnel… Just to irritate you.”
“Careful, sir… I haven’t even had my coffee yet. I’m liable to take a threat like that a little too seriously right now,” the redhead replied with his usual obnoxious grin, before slipping back into the kitchen. “He’s up… Can we eat now?”
The executive shook his head and grudgingly followed. His Turks, minus Rude, were already seated around the table, studying a pale gray stone sphere. The absent Turk was spotted moments later, scooping sausages from a pan.
“Is that it?” Rufus asked eagerly, eying their curious little prize.
“So it would seem,” Tseng replied with a nod. “It appears to be made from materia. Nothing like I’ve ever personally seen before, but materia nonetheless.”
The President took the empty seat to Elena’s left and reached for the sphere. It was surprisingly light for its size and as he lifted it off the table he felt a faint buzz in his fingertips, as if it were humming in such a low tone none of them could hear it. When he looked at it a bit closer, he realized that it wasn’t actually solid gray, as he’d first assumed. It was slightly translucent… like all materia tended to be… with a cloudy interior rather than the pale lights that one would normally expect to be shimmering inside.
“How soon can we leave?”
“The Highwind arrived fifteen minutes ago, shortly after we did. It’s ready to depart at any time you’d like…” Tseng replied, and Rufus quickly opened his mouth to order that it do so immediately. The Wutaiian Turk had apparently expected just that, however. “I would request, sir, that we at least have breakfast first.”
“I should refuse that request just to spite the slum rat…” said Rufus, turning his gaze pointedly on Reno, “I thought you claimed to have been waiting nearly an hour…”
The redhead shrugged, reaching for the sausages. “Guess my estimate was a little off… Hunger’ll do that to ya…”
It was tempting… The thought of the look on the man’s face if he was suddenly told they were leaving almost made Rufus do it. But, truth be told… he was hungry, too, and those sausages did smell good, as did the hash browns Rude was currently plating for them.
“You know, Tseng… I will never understand why you tolerate such blatant insubordination from that one. I should demand that you punish him severely for lying to an executive. Might I suggest separating him from his beloved for a time? That seems more than fair.”
Tseng chuckled and picked up his silverware, starting in on the plate in front of him. “As it happens, sir, we’ve already discussed just that. Elena and I will be accompanying you. Reno and Rude will be going to Nibelheim to look for Hojo’s missing research records.”
Rufus glanced up at him, faintly surprised. “Oh? I was under the impression that they were a package deal… You mean they’re still capable of functioning without one another?”
“Yes, sir,” Tseng replied, smiling, “Quite capable. Given the nature of the Keystone, I thought it best to bring Elena along to the Temple. She’s shown herself to have a bit of a natural affinity for materia… moreso than the rest of us.”
“That’s putting it mildly in Reno’s case…” Elena giggled teasingly. The redhead responded by swiping a sausage from her plate, locking eyes with her and unabashedly shoving the entire thing into his mouth… an action which only caused her to laugh harder. Rufus paused mid-bite and smirked.
“Ah, yes… I seem to remember Tseng telling me in great detail about your training in its use. As I recall, he was growing rather frustrated with your complete inability to make it do… anything.”
“Yeah, well… I fight just fine without it.” He served himself some eggs, and dug into the pile on his plate. “And I’m pretty sure Irecall a little somethin’ about you’re experience with materia, too…”
“I suggest you stop talking and go back to stuffing your face before I decide to have you demoted to entry guard when we return to Midgar,” the young executive responded, his face reddening. He certainly didn’t need anyone being reminded of that little incident. The Turk popped a bit of sausage into his mouth and grinned.
“Don’t dish it out if ya can’t take it, sir…” he said in a playful tone.
The helicopter set down almost perfectly centered on the deck of the Highwind… no easy maneuver, given how tight a fit it actually was. Reno’d had to fly them neatly beneath the upper body of the craft to slot them into the open space on the deck below. Elena certainly wouldn’t have wanted to attempt it…
“Fuck… and I thought landin’ at sea was a bitch…” the redhead said once they were down, releasing a long breath in relief. “Why the fuck’d we decide we wanted to do this again?”
“Because it was faster than landing the Highwind itself,” Tseng replied, releasing his harness and making his way out.
“Yeah, well… Next time, you’re parkin’ the damn thing.”
Elena snickered and let herself out of her restraints as well. She crept up to between the pilot and co-pilot’s seats and gently grasped his chin turning him to face her.
“Be careful in Nibelheim,” she said, and softly kissed his lips. He frowned slightly as she pulled away.
“You be careful in that Ifrit-forsaken temple… We’ll be headin’ back your way soon as we can. Watch yourself… ‘kay?” the redhead replied, seriously.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry so much.” She kissed him again and then turned to Rude, grinning. “Keep him out of trouble, will you?”
The bald Turk snorted softly and smirked. “I’ll try. No promises. Better get going… Rufus looks impatient.”
She glanced through the cockpit window, and noticed that the young executive was, indeed, looking in at her, arms crossed over his chest in annoyance and tapping his foot against the Highwind’s deck. She sighed and withdrew, making her way quickly towards the door.
“Bye, guys!” she called out, and pulled it shut. She backed away from the craft, joining the others as the helicopter lifted off and moved clear of the airship before circling and heading east towards Mt. Nibel.
“Finally… For a moment, I thought I was going to have to demand the flight crew get a hose out in order to get the two of your apart…”
“Sorry, sir,” Elena replied, resisting the urge to laugh at the President’s single-minded focus, and followed him below deck.
“Good morning, sir,” a familiar voice greeted them as they stepped into the small meeting room, and Elena blinked in surprise. More surprising than the unexpected company, however, was Tseng’s response.
“Viridia?” he queried, clearly a little shocked to see the woman, and completely forgetting his usual decorum. Elena very clearly saw him start to move toward her, only to apparently remember that he was, in fact on duty and restrain himself, clearing his throat awkwardly as he settled back into his usual posture. She let a smile twitch the corners of her mouth upwards… It was kind of cute.
Rufus rolled his eyes and sighed. “Wonderful. I get rid of one Turk’s constant distractionand there’s another waiting for me. And just what are you doing here?”
If Lieutenant Commander Nacelle was offended by the remark, she certainly didn’t show it. “After the security breach on the ship, I thought it best to see to things on the Highwind personally, sir.”
“Ah… Does that mean I won’t be running into Sephiroth or his little cloaked minions below deck this time?”
“Not if I have anything to say about it, sir.”
“How reassuring…” he remarked, with obvious sarcasm. “In that case, if I’m not in danger of being sliced in half, I’ll be on the bridge. See what the three of you can come up with in terms of a plan for investigating the Cetra temple…” He turned on his heel and marched out, leaving them on their own without a further word.
“Well… He’s certainly in a fine mood this morning…” Viridia chuckled, and gestured to the seats surrounding the table in the center of the room. “So… let’s see this ‘keystone’ he was so anxious to get his hands on…”
Tseng opened the small case he’d packed the orb away in earlier, and set it on the table. Viridia reached for it, fingers barely even grazing it before she looked up at them.
“It’s materia…” she said, sounding shocked. Tseng nodded.
“Yes… Though what kind, I can’t even begin to imagine. Perhaps you can provide some insight on that front. You’re a resource I wasn’t counting on having access to… though I’m certainly glad to find that I do.”
Viridia lifted the sphere from its case, holding it lightly in her palm. “Well, it’s not casting materia, that’s for sure. In fact, it I had to venture a guess, I’d say it’s not naturally occurring at all. It feels…” She paused a moment, as if trying to find the right word to describe the odd little crystal. “It feels almost mechanical. Engineered. I’m not sure I can explain it any better than that. I think… it’s literally a key that opens a lock and nothing more.”
“I suppose that makes our job a little easier, then,” Tseng replied, “If all we have to do is put a key into a keyhole.”
“Then we just have to search an ancient temple, figure out what Sephiroth is after, find it before he shows up, and get out of there in one piece. Simple…” Elena cut in. The Turk leader laughed softly.
“I think your significant other’s penchant for sarcasm is beginning to rub off on you, Elena…” he said, tucking the Keystone back into its case.
“Er… yes, sir… I’m pretty sure it is.” She blushed faintly. She hadn’t intended to be quite so flippant about their mission. Shiva only knew what might be waiting for them once they got inside.
“Not his complete lack of anything even remotely resembling shame, though, apparently…” Viridia snickered. “Anyway… I’m first and foremost here to make sure the Highwind stays secure, but if you need my help just ask.”
“Thank you… We will,” said Tseng.
Viridia nodded. “In that case, I should get back to work.” She had just turned to leave when Elena suddenly remembered the other strange materia they’re recently come into possession of.
“Oh… w-wait! There is something else you might be able to help with…” she said, fishing it from her pocket and holding it out to the other woman.
“Oh, that’s right… It had entirely slipped my mind,” Tseng said upon seeing the raw crystal. “None of us have the faintest idea what it might be. Elena was hoping you might recognize it… and I have to admit, I’m a bit curious myself.”
“Hmm…” She held her hand out and Elena placed it in her palm. Viridia frowned slightly in concentration for a moment, before looking up, wide-eyed. “Where in Kjata’s name did you ever manage to find yourself a chunk of Full Cure materia?” she asked, disbelievingly.
“Fuck, man… This place is almost as creepy as it was the last time I was here.”
“Hmph… the last time you were here, it had been burnt to the ground,” Rude responded. But Reno was right. Nibelheim… the new Nibelheim, at any rate… had always a distinctly weird vibe to it. He’d had the opportunity to pay the little mountain town a visit a handful of times since its reconstruction, and it was always the same artificial feeling. They wandered past the well in the center of town, looking around in curiosity.
No one else seemed to be up and about yet… either that, or they’d spotted the helicopter as it landed and retreated to the safety of their homes. While most of the ‘townspeople’ were, in fact, Shinra employees and their families, they were never exactly thrilled to see Shinra military personnel or the Turks turn up unannounced.
“Maybe even more creepy, now…” Reno amended. “Still can’t believe they managed to make this shit look exactly the same as it did before the fire.”
“We heading straight to the manor?” the bald Turk asked. He assumed they would be… They didn’t really have any business with the townspeople, and the sooner they got what they came for, the happier Rufus would be.
“S’pose so… not much point hittin’ up the local bar. Doubt they’ll know anything about Hojo’s research. And I’m not plannin’ on stayin long enough to need a room for the night… are you?”
Rude smirked. “Could always spend the night in the manor if it starts getting late…”
The redhead stopped mid-stride and turned to look at him. “Not if I have choice. I’ll sleep in the helicopter first. Place is even creepier than the fuckin’ town.”
“Come on… Let’s go…” he replied, chuckling at his friend’s reticence about the huge mansion. Reno had always insisted that he didn’t believe in ghosts… but he definitely had an aversion to that place. Even before the fire.
They made their way through town and paused outside the wrought iron gate just long enough to push the heavy latch up. It gave way surprisingly easily… and Rude suspected that someone must have forced it open fairly recently as heavily rusted as it looked. The front door, too, had been jimmied, and he could see that it hung slightly open as they approached.
“Think we got company?” Reno asked, EMR already in hand.
“… Could just be kids from town breaking in.” Though he had his doubts about that. It wasn’t as if Shinra had left particularly impressive security in place… the lock on the door was about it, really… but the townspeople tended to avoid the manor, probably hoping the damn thing would just cave in on itself one of these days.
They ventured inside, eyes scanning the darkened foyer, ears straining to pick up the slightest sound. Reno signaled to him to take the left side of the house, while he went right. Rude stepped into a narrow hallway and silently followed it, cringing when the floorboards creaked underfoot. The door at the end led him into a large parlor, where a grand piano sat, covered in dust, in one corner. A few of the keys gleamed in the dim light that shone through grungy windows, wiped clean by someone’s fingertips… not long ago, either.
He continued on, moving through the parlor and into a second hallway at the back of the house and then through to a small kitchen. There was no one there, either… though the large pantry off the kitchen looked like it had been raided recently. Satisfied the area was clear, he backtracked in search of his partner.
Rude hadn’t gone far when he heard a crash from elsewhere in the house. He ran in the direction it had come from, weapon drawn. It hadn’t been from the part of the house Reno had gone to investigate… which meant that they really weren’t alone.
“Oh, goddammit!” he suddenly heard his partner swear, his voice coming from upstairs… from the same direction as the crash, he noted. His pace quickened… though judging by the muffled grunts coming from the room ahead of him as he reached the second floor, it didn’t exactly sound like the redhead had been attacked. Whatever had happened, though, he didn’t seem happy about it.
He veered left down the hall, and then took another left into a large bedroom… which was, surprisingly, empty. Odd… He’d been sure this was where Reno’s voice had come from.
“Rude? That you?!”
“…” He paused and scanned the room, but there was still no one there. “… Where are you?”
There was a long, drawn out sigh, followed by his friend’s voice saying, “Don’t you dare fuckin’ laugh…”
Rude stepped more fully into the room, more confused than concerned by now.
“… Over here,” Reno finally said, his tone resigned. The other Turk followed his voice, but still saw no one. That is, until he walked past the foot of the first of rooms’ two beds and looked down.
He tried… He really did. Attempting not to laugh at the sight that greeted him, however, very quickly proved futile. Eventually he had to brace himself against the bedpost just to stay upright. After a minute or so, even that wasn’t enough and he sat down on the mattress, still laughing.
“Yeah… Ha, ha ha… So funny. GET ME THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!” Reno shouted at him, glaring, unamused, up at his partner. Rude removed his sunglasses and wiped away the tears, trying to get himself under control again. It didn’t work very well.
It was obvious what had happened… but somehow it seemed like something that could only possibly have happened to Reno. The redhead was, from his armpits down, embedded in the floor. Apparently a few of the boards had rotted through and even his meager weight was too much for them to support. He was wedged in just tight enough that he couldn’t fall through… nor could he find the leverage to lift himself out.
Rude finally managed to calm down enough to find his voice. “You hurt?”
“… No. Just stuck,” Reno replied, disgusted at the situation. “Seriously, man… Quit laughin’ and pull me up before something else breaks.”
He carefully moved towards him, testing the flooring as he went. The last thing he needed was to fall through himself. When he was satisfied that a second collapse wasn’t imminent, he slowly reached for his partner’s arm, and pulled him out of the hole.
“Unbe-fuckin’-leivable…” Reno muttered once he was on solid ground again. He dusted himself off a bit and glanced up at Rude. “Don’t even think about tellin’ ‘Lena about that…”
He snorted a laugh, and wrapped an arm around the redhead’s shoulders, coaxing him toward the door. “Come on. Let’s get what we came here for before you break the rest of the house…”
“Ah, shut up…”
Rude was still snickering quietly as they crossed the house to a small room and pushed against the stone wall that concealed a door to the basement. It swung open with a loud creak, revealing a long, spiraling staircase that vanished into the darkness below.
“After you…” he smirked, gesturing for Reno to go on ahead of him. The redhead clicked on the flashlight he’d brought with him and started down.
“Yeah… ’cause I’m havin’ such good luck in this fuckin’ nightmare of a house as it is. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Full Cure?” Elena queried. She’d certainly heard of Cure materia before… had even used it a few times in training. The name was a bit of a misnomer. It didn’t really heal an injury. But it could slow or even stop bleeding, reduce pain, and provide a boost of energy so you could get yourself out of trouble and get help. Repeated spells could minutely increase the body’s natural healing processes, but serious injuries still required medical care. It was more of a stopgap than a permanent fix.
She’d never heard of Full Cure materia, though. Tseng looked just as perplexed as she felt.
“It’s not just rare… It’s almost impossible to find. You’ve seen mako therapy in action?” Viridia asked, and Elena nodded. Of course she had. “Well… This is the materia it’s based on. Shinra found a way to replicate the materia’s magic using the much more common Cure materia, machinery, and mako energy from the reactors. But the equipment is bulky and expensive to build… and there’s a danger of mako poisoning associated with it. The real thing doesn’t have those problems, but until today, I’ve only ever seen one other piece. The one the Shinra labs used as a blueprint for mako therapy. I’m not sure there are even any others that have been found.”
“If it’s so rare… why didn’t Shinra just make another one? Reno told me that materia grows a little with every use until eventually you end up with an exact copy.”
Viridia smiled and handed the materia crystal back to her. “That’s right. It’s called mastering… and believe me they’ve tried. Headquarters had the best of the Junon Materia Corps on it for almost two years before they finally gave up due to lack of progress. Some types of materia take a lot of time and effort to master. And usually those types can only be used by people who have trained hard to develop their mana and stamina reserves. Even then, a person could spend years trying to bring a Full Cure to master level.”
Elena held the crystal up to the light. It really didn’t seem so different from any other materia she’d trained with. It was hard to believe it could really be that powerful.
“A word of advice… Don’t go trying to use that. Even after you get it processed… assuming that’s what you plan to do.”
She looked up in surprise. “W-what? Why not?” she asked, confused. Lieutenant Commander Nacelle eyed Tseng for a moment, looking at him pointedly.
“Judging by the… rather accusatory… look Viridia is giving me, I suspect because the result would be much the same as happened to you early in your training when I pushed you too hard.”
“Probably worse,” the woman quickly confirmed. “Tseng told me you were wrecked for the rest of the afternoon after that. Something like this might well put you out of commission for several days. I know it knocked me for a loop more than once when we were trying to master the one from Shinra’s labs, and I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you have.”
Elena stared at her new materia, wondering if she should even keep it, if that was the case. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be that adept with materia, and if it was really as rare as Viridia claimed, what good was it doing anyone if she put it away in a box and forgot about it? But then… she wasn’t quite sure she was willing to give it up to the biologics department for research, either. She really didn’t trust them… even with Hojo out of the picture.
“Sir…” she began.
“Worry about it later, Elena. There’s no need to decide what to do with it right this second. The important thing is that now we know what it is,” Tseng replied, having little trouble guessing where her mind was at. “Right now, we have a mission to prepare for.”
“Find anything yet?”
Reno flipped through a sheaf of old, mildew stained pages he’d pulled out of a filing cabinet. Most of them seemed to be invoices, not research data. He set them aside and reached for the next batch, biting back a groan. This was the second cabinet he’d gone through… and apparently it wasn’t going to be the last.
“Tch… Not a damn thing. You?”
“Ever wonder what happened to all the bodies from the Nibelheim fire?” Rude asked. Judging by his tone, Reno was pretty sure he didn’t want to.
“No. And don’t tell me, either. I got enough nightmares of my own,” he replied, “Oh… nice.”
Rude glanced over at him and the redhead held up a long-dead, and very petrified rat, dangling it by the tail between two fingers. The bald Turk smirked.
“Thought you once told me you ate those things as a kid…”
“Nah… I ate cripshays. Always heard rats’ll make ya sick,” he replied, tossing the desiccated rodent into a corner. He went back to the documents for a moment, before continuing. “So… Speakin’ of my nightmares… think we left off on a kinda important conversation back in Gongaga. You finally gonna tell me what’s goin’ on?”
“…” Rude didn’t answer, opting instead to leaf through his own stack of reading material.
“Come on, partner. Been driving myself nuts for a couple of days now tryin’ to figure out what the hell I did… Spill.”
The bald Turk sighed and set the papers down on the stack of rejected documents. “It’s nothing you did,” he replied at last. “… intentionally. Probably shouldn’t even bother me.”
Reno eyed him with concern. Rude wasn’t usually so cryptic when he finally did decide to open up. “But it obviously is botherin’ ya, so would you just fuckin’ tell me already so I can stop doin’ whatever the hell it is?”
“… I’m jealous,” he replied after another lengthy hesitation, “Of Elena.”
The redhead stood for a moment in shocked silence trying to process that. He set his current stack of documents aside and crossed the room, walking up to his friend.
“‘Kay… Gonna need you to elaborate here. What the fuck dya mean you’re jealous of ‘Lena?” he asked, brow furrowed in confusion. Rude looked away, unable, for a moment, to keep eye contact with him. He sighed again, and sat down in one of the tattered chairs in the reading room. Reno followed suit, waiting for an answer.
“I mean I’m jealous,” he finally said. “You spend all your time with her. You talk to her. You practically eat, sleep, and breathe her.”
He swallowed sharply. “I thought you were happy we got together…”
“I was,” Rude quickly replied, looking up at him again. “I am. It’s just… We almost never hang out at the Phoenix Nest after work anymore. You don’t randomly invite yourself over to my place expecting me to feed you. And when we do spend time together, Elena’s usually with us, too. I guess I’ve just been feeling a little… forgotten. Especially after Sector 7… which is probably even more screwed up and selfish than it sounds. I was always the one you turned to first when you needed someone. Now it’s Elena.”
Reno was stunned. That was probably the last thing he’d expected to hear his friend say to him… and for a very brief moment, he was angry. Angry that Rude felt so entitled to him… though the more he mulled it over, the more he realized that his friend wasn’t exactly wrong about him pulling a little bit of a disappearing act lately in favor of his girlfriend. It hadn’t occurred to him that it was such a pronounced change in his usual routine, however, until it had been pointed out to him… or that it had so deeply affected his friend.
“Ya know if it was just about anyone else, I’d tell ’em to fuck off and let me be happy, right?”
“…” Rude dropped his gaze again, and the redhead rolled his eyes.
“Fuck, Rude, come on… I’m just kiddin’ around. Mostly.” He moved from his seat and perched himself on the arm of the other mans chair so he could sling an arm around his shoulders. “Hey… I’m sorry if I’ve kinda been ignorin’ ya lately. I guess I’m… I dunno, man…”
“You’re in love,” Rude finished for him, finally cracking a faint smile, “You can’t help it.”
“Still kind of a shit thing to do to a friend, though, huh?”
“Especially one that knows all of your most embarrassing secrets. Like how you got stuck in a floor.”
Reno laughed, and tightened his grip on Rude. “Yeah. Thought we agreed never to mention that again. Look… I’ll try not to be so… uh… completely obsessed with spending every waking moment with ‘Lena, ‘kay? You’re my best friend and the best brother a guy could ask for, and nothin’s ever gonna change that. You know that, right?”
“Yeah. I know. Nice you hear you say it, though.”
The redhead grinned and slid off the arm of the chair into Rude’s lap. “Is this the part where we kiss and make up?” he purred, teasingly. Reno batted his eyes innocently, grinning up at him before cupping the other man’s face in his hands and leaning in to make a joking attempt at doing just that. His partner rolled his eyes behind the dark lenses of his sunglasses and shoved him to the floor before he even got close.
“No… This is the part where we get back to work while I reevaluate my life choices and wonder what the hell I was so jealous of to begin with,” he replied, failing to keep a completely straight face.
Reno snickered and scrambled to his feet. “Seriously, though. Are we all good now? ‘Cause I really need us to be good.”
“Yeah… We’re good.”
Tseng made his way carefully across the rope bridge. It was quite a span, and the bridge itself looked downright ancient. It creaked ominously underfoot… but it held. He didn’t dare relax until his feet were solidly planted on the other side, however.
“Alright… It seems safe enough,” he called back to Elena, and she hurried to make the same, somewhat harrowing, journey. The pair climbed the crumbling stone steps to the temple entrance, and paused inside of the little alcove at the top. There was tall pedestal near the back, and a ring outlined in the stones that made up the floor in front of it… but nothing resembling a doorway.
“Sir? What exactly are we supposed to do to get in?” Elena asked, and the Turk leader shook his head.
“I suppose we see if this alleged Keystone fits in the slot… and then see what happens,” he replied, nodding to an indentation on top of the pedestal. He hesitated a moment. “Wait here. There no sense in both of us risking getting caught in some sort of trap.”
“But…”
“Wait here,” he repeated, more firmly this time, not giving her the opportunity to protest. Probably, he mused, it was a mere over-abundance of caution. Still, though… there was something odd about this place. Better to take things slow… because they weren’t going to be calling for backup if something went wrong.
They’d found that out shortly after they’d been lowered to the ground from the Highwind. Their PHSs had very quickly lost their signal as they drew closer to the strange structure… and, he was relatively certain, would have none at all once they were inside. He vaguely wondered if it was limited to cellular signals, or if radio signals were impacted as well. Either way, they were going to be out of communication for the duration and would have to backtrack quite a ways through the dense jungle when they were ready to be picked up.
Tseng removed the Keystone from his pocket, and with one final glance back at Elena, placed it into the slot. For a moment, it flared brightly, then settled to a more subdued glow… but nothing else seemed to happen. He looked around, searching for any sort of change in the Temple, but saw nothing. At last, he turned back to his fellow Turk, ready to concede that he had no idea what the next step might be. Before he could, however, he felt himself begin to sink into the stone at his feet.
“Sir!” Elena cried as he vanished from view.
It was an odd sensation, passing through the thick slab of stone like a ghost… and though it was over in seconds, it seemed much longer. He found himself deposited gently in a huge, subterranean chamber, and took a few steps forward. The sight in front of him was just as strange as his arrival had been. Stairways led off in every direction, leading to other levels… some where doors sat, waiting to be opened, others that circled around to still more stairs or to narrow passages leading into darkness, or vine-covered ledges that seemed to serve no purpose beyond forcing you to turn back.
A maze, he quickly realized. This… might take just a bit longer than he’d initially intended.
The ceiling above him flared briefly, and Elena emerged from the stone, much as he just had. Her eyes were wide in surprise, though her expression turned to one of relief when she spotted him. Once she, too, was safely on the ground, she made her way over to him.
“That… was weird,” she stated.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” Tseng replied, “These Cetra seem to have had a far more advanced knowledge of magic than I think anyone suspected.”
“Which way now?”
The Wutaiian Turk gazed out at the intertwining pathways and sighed. “Your guess is as good as mine… I suspect that this isn’t meant to be easy.”
Lira stared down at the screen of her PHS. Her phone’s log still showed one missed call, and she hadn’t been able to bring herself to clear it… or call the familiar number back. It had been sitting there, silently pleading with her, for days now. She just wasn’t ready to talk to him.
She wasn’t entirely sure she’d ever be ready to talk to him.
Reno hadn’t just crossed a line. He’d launched himself so far over it, she doubted he could even see the line anymore. All those people… all those deaths. She hadn’t thought anyone was capable of something so needlessly cruel, least of all the sweet little redhead she’d grown up with. The one who’d risked his own life to protect her when she was in trouble, and looked after her any time she’d been sick, and who had been devastated when he’d realized that no matter what he did to keep her safe, it wouldn’t be enough as long as she stayed in Sector 2, and had taken her to the one place he’d never wanted her to end up.
She didn’t know if that Reno still existed. And she blamed Shinra for it.
For awhile, she’d thought she had him convinced to come to Wall Market with her. There were always girls looking for someone they could trust to watch their backs. There were bars that would have hired him, too. And if he’d been willing to go that far… though she doubted he ever would have… any of the brothels would have snapped him up in a heartbeat.
Instead, that bastard, Tseng, had come along and offered to take him away from the slums. Even back then, Lira hadn’t been certain that the price he was asking would be worth it. She was even less certain of it now, and she was angry with the man for what he’d turned her little Reno into over the years.
But even more than Tseng, she was furious with Reno for allowing it to happen. She had, she realized, been living in denial for a very long time. Reno had been so innocent when they’d first met… and he’d let that be stripped from him in exchange for the luxury of living topside. She’d seen it happening and had done her best to ignore it, wanting, more than anything, for him to find the happiness that truly good people deserved.
Lira shoved the phone back into her pocket. She was still too hurt and too angry to even consider hearing him out right now. Any excuse he might offer was liable to just piss her off even more, and the baby didn’t seem to like it much when she was mad. He insisted on giving her the worst heartburn she’d ever had in her life, every single time. Reno would just have to deal with his guilty conscience on his own.
She frowned at that thought and reached into her pocket again, pulling up the call log on her phone a second time.
He did have a guilty conscience. The nightmares were proof enough of that. He may have done something horrible… but he was suffering for it. It wasn’t just another kill that he could chalk up to being part of the job. It was eating at him… tormenting him in his sleep. And maybe that’s what he deserved, really, but the thought still bothered her. She had never liked seeing Reno in pain. Even now there was a part of her, in spite of how angry she was with him, that wanted to comfort him.
At the moment, however, it was a very tiny part… and she resolutely crammed the phone back into her pocket.
She let her hand settle on her belly, a gesture that was quickly becoming instinctual. Reno wasn’t her responsibility anymore. For a very long time, he had been… in a way. He’d been the little brother she’d never had… and at the same time, he’d been the lover she’d always wanted. But she’d always known she couldn’t keep him forever. And after Sector 7, she wasn’t sure she wanted any more to do with him.
Lira blinked back unexpected tears at that thought. She was indescribably angry, and what he’d done she honestly didn’t know if she could forgive… but the idea of letting him go completely felt like losing a part of herself, and she knew that if she couldn’t forgive him, that’s exactly what she would have to do.
She had never felt so torn.
Her fingers lightly stoked her abdomen. He was wrong. He’d said no one could tell she was pregnant yet… but he was wrong. Her baby was there, and she could feel him… could see the barest hint of herself growing rounder. It thrilled and terrified her at the same time.
Reno would have to wait. Maybe one day she’d be able to look past what he’d done… but not right now. Right now, there was someone else who needed her full attention, her protection, and her comfort… because it was a scary and dangerous world she was going to be bringing him into, full of scary and dangerous people.
~fin~
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