Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 63: The Needs of the Many

By the time they arrived back at headquarters, the rest of the team seemed to be wide awake and ready to start the day. Tres immediately commandeered Rude the moment he spotted him and hustled the rookie off to his office to share their findings from Wall Market, leaving the redhead to fend for himself. Reno tried not to take that too personally. If he wasn’t needed, he wasn’t needed. Simple as that.

Instead, he headed downstairs in search of the breakfast he hadn’t had time for earlier. He found the team’s other two rookies, along with Shay, sitting at their usual table and hurried through the line so that he could join them.

“Reno! Where have you been?” Cissnei asked as he finally took a seat.

“The Honeybee Inn,” he replied, before cramming three strips of bacon into his mouth at once and savoring the deliciously salty taste.

“What? You finally ran out of women to sleep with here at the office?” Rodney said, rolling his eyes.

“Ha, ha…” the redhead returned, “I went with Tres to follow up on a lead about the Wutaiian attack.”

The information seemed to leave a sour look on the other rookie’s face, and Reno got the distinct impression that Rodney felt that he should have been the one to accompany the senior Turk… but if that was his opinion, he didn’t voice it.

“Did you find out anything?” Shay queried. Reno swallowed a mouthful of hashbrowns and chased it with a large gulp of orange juice.

“Just that these guys might’ve been playin’ us from the start. All that shit you ‘n me found in the sewer? Think we might’ve been meant to find it to throw us off their real target.”

A worried silence enveloped the table as his teammates looked at one another. It was Cissnei who finally broke it.

“So… what’s their real target, then?”

Reno shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe somethin’ in Sector 5. Could be the reactor. Could be somethin’ else. I’m guessin’ that’s why Tres snagged Rude soon as we got back ‘n disappeared. Wanted to compare notes.”

“Well, of course it’s the reactor,” Rodney piped up. “What else could it be? There’s absolutely nothing else they could possibly target that would do even close to the amount of damage as destroying one of the reactors would.”

He was right, Reno thought. He’d personally seen the aftermath of a reactor explosion… and helped drag out survivors. Hell, there might not have even been any survivors if Shinra hadn’t stabilized part of the Plate before…

Reno suddenly choked on a bite of eggs. It took several second of Cissnei thumping him on the back before the resulting coughing fit ceased.

“Reno? You okay?” Shay asked, as he caught his breath.

“Uh… I kinda hate to say it, but… there is something they could target that’d be worse than a reactor…” he finally managed.

Rodney eyed him incredulously. “Oh, yeah? What?”

“… One of the pillars.”

The redhead was almost certain his fellow rookie paled slightly at his pronouncement, and Cissnei let out a startled gasp. Shay, meanwhile, was already on his feet, making a beeline for the exit.

---

Their PHSs went off simultaneously just as they stepped aboard the elevator. The three rookies had only lingered long enough in the cafeteria to polish off their meal and chat a bit before making their way back upstairs, but apparently it had been toolong for Veld’s taste. The message on his phone summoned him to the briefing room. Immediately. And by the looks on the other two rookies’ faces, theirs said the same.

When they arrived at headquarters, the others were already taking their seats. A few looked perplexed by the unexpected meeting… but most seemed concerned. Reno silently slipped into a seat, and was a little surprised when Tseng settled in next to him instead of occupying his usual position at the head of the table with Veld. That space, for the moment, seemed to have been taken over by Tres.

“What in the name of Odin’s balls is going on now?” Luca grumbled, crossly, “I’m on a tight schedule, Tres… Especially since you keep bringing me more people to interrogate. At this rate I’ll be lucky to get through them all by next week.”

“Forget about them. We’ve located the targets,” Tres said. The other Turk immediately shut his mouth and sat up.

“And what’s more, thanks in large part to Rude’s efforts last night and early this morning, we know where they are. Or at least where they will be in about thirty minutes,” Veld added.

“So what the hell are we doing sitting around here?” Kai demanded, “Let’s go take the fuckers down!”

“Therein lies the problem,” said Tseng, “We know where they are, and where they’re going, but we still don’t know who they are.”

“They’re moving via train,” Veld explained, “Likely individually or in small groups, coming from different sectors. But they’re all heading for Sector 5. Unfortunately, since we don’t know any of their identities, they’re going to be difficult to spot. Short of stopping every Wutaiian in every station and on every train, it’s just not going to be possible until they ultimately meet up with one another.”

“So? We get to where they’re going and wait,” Kai proclaimed.

Tres shook his head. “We do that ‘n we’re screwed. They’re headin’ for the Sector 5 train hub. The one that sits right on top of the goddamn Sector 5 pillar… which, as Reno pointed out a little while ago, would be an absolutely devastating target. They make it that far, and anything we do’ll be too little, too late.”

“I-It would destroy the entire sector if it gave way,” Remy said, in abject disbelief. “Both the Plate and the Slums. Dear Leviathan… the death toll would be in the tens of thousands!”

“We suspect they’ve dispatch someone to rig the lower section of the pillar as well. Sato and Saya are already on their way down to find them and disarm the bomb if necessary. But a large enough explosion topside, on its own, could still destabilize the structure enough to cause a collapse. We need to stop them before they can trigger one.”

“What makes you think they haven’t already planted these bombs?” asked Kai.

“We know they haven’t,” said Veld. “They’ve been hiding up here… biding their time… bringing in components for their bombs a few at a time to avoid detection, and going out of their way to put us on the wrong scent. Rude successfully tracked down one of their couriers just an hour ago. He made his last delivery this morning.”

“And me ‘n Reno traced one of ’em to the slums earlier, too,” Tres said, “Didn’t catch up to him, but I’d put good money on him bein’ one of the ones down there to plant the first bomb while his friends took care of the second.”

“The second is the one that concerns us the most right now. The pillar doesn’t offer much in the way of hiding places. Saya and Sato will have little difficulty dealing with that,” Veld continued. “But at least some of the others are heading for the Sector 5 hub as we speak. Plenty of places to hide both themselves and explosives. Weekend routes are in effect. That means that, no matter where they’re coming from, to get to 5 they’ll all have to take the Sector 3 outer branch lines at some point. Those trains will be making an unexpected stop at the station in outer Sector 3… well away from that pillar, just in case they get any bright ideas. Tseng has suggested a military strike on the station itself, and Heidegger received approval from the board of directors just before I summoned you all.”

“W-wait, what?” Reno suddenly spoke up, eyes going wide. “It’s a fuckin’ train station. There’s gonna be tons of people there! What’s gonna happen to them?”

“They’ll die,” Rodney replied, in that annoying, know-it-all tone of his, “Obviously.”

The redhead turned his gaze on his mentor, gaping.

“We have no time for a precision assault targeting only the enemy. There are more than twelve thousand people living in Sector 5. At least half that many more below in the slums,” said Tseng, in answer to his ward’s unasked question, “We are sacrificing perhaps a few hundred early morning travelers to save them. It is… unfortunate… but necessary.”

“This isn’t open to debate. It’s already in motion. Shinra forces will be disguised as Wutaiian combatants. Shinra will publicly condemn Wutai for an egregious attack on the city. War will be declared, with Wutai as the aggressor… but on our terms, not theirs. We were too slow in catching up to them. All we can do now is minimize the damage,” Veld explained. His eyes locked onto Luca, who had pulled out his phone, “And until we receive confirmation of a successful strike, we will be under a complete communications blackout. Put that phone away.”

“Sir… my aunt –”

Veld shook his head. “A complete blackout,” he repeated, “No exceptions. We can’t risk word leaking and our targets getting off of that train early… we may not have another chance like this.”

“… Yes, sir,” the other Turk said, grudgingly tucking the phone back into his pocket.

“That being said… there are going to be a lot of people injured. We would also, ideally, like to identify the Wutaiian agents behind the attack. Half of you will be working search and rescue. The rest will be positioned at Midgar General and its satellite clinics in Sector 3. Flag any survivors who lack identification for eventual interrogation.”

Tseng stood then, and joined the Turk leader at the head of the table.

“Remy, Luca, and Kai… you’ll be in the field,” he ordered. “Shay, I’ll need you in the helicopter with me. Tres… you’ll take the others and see to identifying everyone who comes in for medical treatment. Fatalities as well, if possible, but primarily concentrate on the survivors for now. Dead men are of little threat to us. Veld will coordinate from headquarters and keep the executive board apprised of the situation.”

There was a faint murmuring amongst the Turks seated at the table, but in seconds, they had separated into their assigned groups and were making their way out the door to gather what they’d need.

Reno slipped away for a moment into the lounge and poured himself another cup of coffee. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day, and the extra caffeine was probably going to come in handy. He downed it, and hurried off to join up with the others… but as he was making his way past Luca’s office, he heard the other Turk’s voice. Curious, he peered through the partially open door, just in time to see the senior Turk pocketing his PHS.

“Reno! Quit dickin’ around ‘n move your ass! We’re headin’ out!” Tres suddenly shouted from the opposite end of the hallway. The rookie jumped at so suddenly being called out and hurried to catch up to the group, leaving Luca behind. He couldn’t help but wonder, though… had the senior Turk disobeyed orders and slipped away to call someone in Sector 3? And if so… should he say something about it, or let it go? After all… it was already done. If it ended up fucking them over, snitching on Luca wouldn’t change that. And he couldn’t really be sure he’d seen what he thought he’d seen, anyway…

He shook his head and scrambled aboard the elevator. There were more important things to worry about at the moment. He and the other rookies were going to have their hands full.

---

They sat in the waiting area of the lobby of the clinic, trying their best to look inconspicuous… though between Reno’s hair, and the fact that Rude looked about as much like the stereotype of a Turk as was humanly possible, the redhead had his doubts that they were passing as mere casual observers. Rude glanced at his watch for the eighth time in as many minutes.

“How much longer, ya think?” the redhead asked, careful to keep his voice low. The waiting room wasn’t exactly packed… but he didn’t want to chance being overheard. Rude shrugged.

Reno wasn’t entirely sure they were close enough to the station to hear what was going down once it started… but within minutes of it being over, the communications blackout would be lifted, and Veld would notify them to be ready for the onslaught of patients arriving. His stomach twisted uncomfortably at the thought.

It was one thing to kill someone who was out to screw over Shinra. Or who was trying to kill you. But Ifrit only knew how many innocent people were going to be in that station when SOLDIER, or whoever was in charge of pulling off this nightmare scenario, went in guns blazing. The thought didn’t sit well with him.

But then… Tseng had made a good point, too. If they didn’t take this opportunity to off these assholes, and they made it through to their target – or they got away and tried this shit again and the Turks didn’t hear about it in time – tens of thousands of people could die. Either way, there were going to be a lot of innocent lives lost today… and as much as he wished he had a better idea, he simply didn’t.

What really bothered him, though, was how cool everyone else seemed to be about doing this. No one else had seemed shocked or even especially hesitant. Surely he couldn’t be the only one wondering if this was the right thing to do…

He swallowed somewhat nervously and glanced over at Rude.

“… I don’t like it either,” he said, before the redhead even had a chance to ask. Reno sighed quietly and leaned back in his seat. In the end, he supposed it didn’t matter whether any of them ‘liked it’ or not. An order was an order, and Turks followed orders.

He jumped, startled, at the sudden buzz that came from inside his breast pocket, and it took him a moment to realize it was his PHS. He pulled it out and read the short message.

“Get ready,” he said, quietly, to his fellow rookie, “They’re on their way.”

---

It was bloody. Whatever had happened in that train station, it had done a lot of damage. Far too many of the people Cissnei saw being brought in to Midgar General’s emergency room were dead already, not having survived the trip. Others were clinging to life, but only just. Her heart wrenched at the sight of a young boy, sobbing in pain, as the medical personnel tried desperately to stem the flow of blood from a deep wound in his chest.

“Think I got one,” Rodney said, lifting the sheet from over one of the patients who’d been dead on arrival. It was an older man… Wutaiian, and heavily battle-scarred. He patted the body down, searching through the man’s pockets, and eventually came up with a folded sheet of paper and some sort of electrical component. The note contained a crude map of what, Cissnei assumed, was the Sector 5 transport hub. Three areas had been marked in red.

“Should we let Tres know?” she asked. Rodney shook his head.

“Come on, Cissy, get with the program. Tres is busy and this guy’s not going anywhere. It’ll keep. We’re looking for any that might have survived, remember?”

She glared, annoyed at the use of her much-hated nickname. It was a simple question, requiring only a yes or a no. Sometimes Rodney really got on her nerves. But as much as she would have liked to have told him off just then, they had a job to do, and any personal issues needed to be put on the back burner. That thought in mind, she wordlessly moved on to the next group of incoming patients.

A moment later, she almost wished she hadn’t.

“… Oh, sweet Shiva…” Cissnei breathed. The Turk took a step back from the gurney, and watched as it was rolled passed her, the two paramedics that had accompanied it, working in desperation to fight what was almost certainly a losing battle. She could see it in the young woman’s eyes, which stared, unseeing, at her as they went by. She was already gone.

“R-Rodney?” she stammered, and turned to find that he, too, was in something of a state of uncharacteristic shock.

“I… um… I-I’ll call Tseng,” he finally said, reaching for his phone. Before he could dial, Cissnei finally managed to shake herself out of her stupor.

“For Titan’s sake, are you out of your mind?!” she hissed, dragging him off into a small corridor, away from the busy emergency department, “I mean, seriously… is your really nose so far up Tseng’s ass that that’s your go-to plan? He’s out in the field right now, flying an Ifrit-forsaken helicopter, with Odin only knows how many people depending on him. You can’t just call him up an tell him something like this!”

Rodney hesitated, staring at the PHS in his hand. She shook her head in frustration. For someone who was considered top of their class in the recruitment program, Rodney could be an utter moron at times.

“Call Veld!”

The other rookie jumped slightly at her angry tone, and seconds later, was placing a call to the Turk leader back at headquarters, hands shaking.

---

Reno was exhausted. Everyone was. The entire Sector 3 station was decimated. Hundreds dead or injured. And some of the injuries had been… sickening. He didn’t know what the hell had gone down to cause much of what he’d seen come into the clinic, and at the moment he wasn’t much interested in having anyone fill in the details. All he really wanted to do was go home and stop thinking about it. Not that there was much chance of that.

But first, he needed to check on Tseng. His mentor had hadn’t returned to the office after the majority of the casualties had been handled. Shay had been piloting the helicopter when it arrived at headquarters, and the Turk lieutenant hadn’t been with him. He was still missing at quitting time.

Veld had been busy with other matters by then. The Turk leader had seemed more on edge than usual, and was deep in conversation with Remy at the time. The redhead hadn’t wanted to interrupt.

Instead, he and Rude had been dismissed by Tres and told to take off before the senior Turk had fucked off to give his own report to Veld. They’d lingered for a bit, hoping to say goodnight to their fellow rookies, but Rodney and Cissnei were mysteriously absent as well… and Reno vaguely wondered if Rodney had talked his way into helping out with whatever assignment Tseng was off working on right now. It’d just figured, the little brown-noser.

But… apparently that wasn’t the case, because Tseng was here.

The lights were off… which was odd. Tseng’s car was parked in its usual space, the curtains were drawn tightly over the front window of the apartment, and the door stood slightly ajar.

And the moment he saw the open door, Reno knew something wasn’t right. Slipping silently inside only confirmed it.

Reno stopped short just steps beyond the threshold and backed into the shadows, one hand reaching for his EMR, the other slowly easing the toppled floor lamp out of his path in case he had to make a hasty retreat during his investigation. Tseng’s apartment had been trashed. Completely trashed. Furniture was overturned, books were scattered, décor had been torn from the walls and flung aside… Virtually nothing he could currently get eyes on had been left untouched.

A part of him wondered if he ought to be calling for backup. The place looked like a battle to the death had been waged there not long ago. It was only the distinct lack of blood or a body that made him push forward alone. He crept through the darkened living room to the nearest door… which happened to be the guest room he’d spent the better part of a year living in… and cracked it open, peering inside. Though just as dark as the rest of the apartment, it was clear that, for some reason, this space had been left entirely untouched. It also didn’t escape his notice that there was no sign of Mayu. All her things were still there… but the young woman herself was absent.

Once he was satisfied that no one was hiding in the shadows, he shut the door and moved on.

The kitchen was, like the living room, destroyed. Drawers had been ripped from their docks, their contents scattered. One seemed to have been flung violently into the wall, leaving behind a gaping hole in the plaster. Reno’s grip tightened on the handle of his weapon as he moved stealthily down the hallway towards the master bedroom. As he approached, he heard a faint sound. Heavy breathing… shuddering, gasping breaths. His pace quickened as he imagined Tseng, attacked and injured in his own home.

The reality was so much worse.

He was seated on the floor next to the window, knees drawn up towards his chest, head in his hands. He didn’t even look up when Reno hit the wall switch, bathing the room in light.

“… Boss?” he ventured, not certain what was going on, or how he should be handling this. Tseng still didn’t look at him.

“I killed her…” came the muffled admission from his mentor, in a voice laced with more sadness than Reno had ever dreamt it possible for three little words to convey. The redhead looked around, half-expecting to see a corpse laid out on the floor. There was only the general destruction of the man’s bedroom. He tucked his mag-rod back into his jacket and knelt down beside the senior Turk. The familiar – though decidedly out of place – scent of hard liquor that hit him as he did so took him by surprise. Tseng virtually never drank to excess. A mostly empty bottle that rested beside him, and the shattered remains of a second across the room seemed to indicate that today was the exception.

“Who?” he prodded, confused. Tseng had killed several people in the time Reno had known him. That was their job. He’d never seen his superior react like this, though. The Wutaiian drew another shaky breath and finally lifted his head.

Anguish. Horror. Disgust. Self-loathing. Gone was the poised, unflinching exterior Reno had come to know so well. Tseng’s eyes revealed it all. The tears that ran freely down his face only added to the unmasking, and Reno recoiled slightly in shock. Nothing got to Tseng like that… Nothing.

“Mayu…” he whispered, voice cracking with emotion. Reno’s eyes widened.

“W-what?” he managed after a moment. That couldn’t be right… but the look in Tseng’s eyes confirmed it. The vibrant, friendly young woman that, in a few short days, he’d become very fond of himself, was dead.

Tseng let his head drop back into his arms with a sob, and Reno was torn between staying with him or slipping out of the room and calling for that backup after all. Veld had known him far longer than Reno had… The Turk leader would surely know what to do…

Reno swallowed sharply. Seeing Tseng so distraught was terrifying. He’d come to believe that the man was unshakable. Watching him fall apart right in front of him left his feeling helpless… and more than slightly worried. He didn’t know what he should be doing. He didn’t even really know what the hell had happened… and he wasn’t sure if he should press for more details or if that would only make things worse.

There was one thing he knew he had to do, however. He wasn’t certain it was strictly necessary, but he wasn’t about to take the chance. Reno reached into Tseng’s jacket and removed his gun from it’s holster, tucking it into the waistband of his pants behind his back… well out of the Turk lieutenant’s reach.

“Come on, Tseng… Let’s get you off the floor…” he said a moment later, urging the other man to his feet. It took some effort. Tseng was thoroughly wasted… and Reno wondered if the two bottles he knew about were just the tip of the iceberg. They’d almost certainly come from the remainder of the redhead’s little stash in the kitchen he hadn’t gotten around to relocating yet… and he’d had a lot more in there than just the two. He helped Tseng stagger over to the bed, and sat with him until he finally passed out.

---

Reno yawned as he tied off the last of the trash bags and shoved it out the door. He’d deal with them properly after he’d gotten some sleep. It had taken all night. The apartment was far from pristine, but at least it no longer looked like a pack of raging nibelwolves had gotten inside. Though he wasn’t sure what to do about the hole in the kitchen wall…

It still seemed a little unreal.

Tseng had still been sleeping off last night’s binge drinking when he’d checked in on him a little while ago… and prior to that, Reno’d had the dubious pleasure of placing a late-night call to Veld and telling him what was going on, as it was obvious that the man would be in no shape to head into the office the next day. If Veld had been surprised, it hadn’t shown… and he’d given the rookie leave to stay with him for the day, which only made Reno more concerned. The Turk leader had sounded worried. Veld never sounded worried.

“… You cleaned.”

The rookie jumped slightly at the unexpected observation, and turned to see his mentor, looking pale and drawn as he leaned against the wall for support. Apparently even hungover and exhausted, Tseng could still sneak up on him.

“Tried to, anyway. Figured you wouldn’t be up to it for awhile.”

Tseng nodded slightly and made his way over to the couch, silently collapsing onto the cushions.

“So… You gonna tell me what last night was all about?”

The older Turk flashed him a pained grimace and sighed heavily. “Sector 3 was my idea. My fault. I don’t know what I was thinking, suggesting something like that. And Mayu paid for it…”

Reno took a seat next to him, watching him carefully. That made a little more sense than the scant answers he’d been given last night… both by Tseng and by Veld… at any rate. Obviously, his sister had been at the Sector 3 train station yesterday… No wonder Tseng was blaming himself.

“Wrong place at the wrong time… You couldn’t’ve known…”

Tseng turned to him, a look of rage on his face.

“But I did know! I could have warned her!” he shouted, suddenly standing. Without warning, he upended the coffee table, sending it flying several feet from where it had rested. “I could have saved her… with one. Leviathan-forsaken. Phone call. A minor breech of protocol is all it would have taken!”

“Tseng…”

“Leave me alone.”

“Boss, I don’t think –” Reno began, only to cut himself off at the nearly homicidal look in the other Turk’s eyes. He quickly swallowed what he’d been about to say.

“Get out, and leave me alone!”

He didn’t try to argue. Something told him that trying to talk to him right now wasn’t going to be especially productive… and might very well prove hazardous to his health. Reno stood and slowly backed away until he was sure he was out of range. He couldn’t recall ever being legitimately afraid of Tseng. Intimidated, certainly, but he’d never had the impression that he might actually harm him. Right now, though… he wasn’t so sure about that.

Right now… it seemed to be taking everything Tseng had in him to restrain himself.

He didn’t want to leave. This wasn’t like Tseng at all, and Reno had no idea what the man might do once he was gone… but there wasn’t much choice. Decision grudgingly made for him, he turned and started towards the door. Tseng said nothing further… not even when the redhead scooped a small object off of the side table before he departed.

Reno closed the door behind him. As he made the short walk down the front path, his hand clenched around Tseng’s gun in a white-knuckled grip. He didn’t know what the man might do… but there was no way in hell he was going to leave him with the temptation to do something that couldn’t be undone.

He couldn’t go through that again.

---

He’d seen the fear in his rookie’s eyes… and though the pain of that frightened expression stabbed at his heart, he couldn’t help but think it was for the best. Even he didn’t know what he was capable of at the moment, and if he unwittingly harmed the young man, lashing out in all-consuming grief… he would never be able to forgive himself.

Not that it was likely he ever would anyway.

Mayu. His beautiful Mayu… perhaps the only truly good and pure thing in his life… was gone. And it was all his fault. It was a guilt he wasn’t certain he’d be able to live with. In fact, there had be a moment last night when he was absolutely certain he could not. It had lead him on a rampage through his apartment that had only truly ended when he’d stumbled upon several bottles of vodka the rookie had left in his care until he was settled in his new apartment.

Disturbingly enough, the fact that Reno had never gotten around to reclaiming them had probably saved his life. The alcohol had dulled the pain enough that Tseng was merely distraught… not suicidal. Though if he was honest with himself, he hadn’t yet dismissed the idea altogether.

It would have to wait, however. He didn’t dare die and leave Mayu, cold and alone in the morgue at Midgar General. Someone needed to take her home… to see to it that she was laid to rest with the dignity and honor she deserved. That duty fell to him, and him alone.

Tseng snorted in grim amusement. Killing himself might not even be an option once he confessed his sins to his father. The family’s patriarch might well choose to take matters into his own hands at that point. And Tseng wasn’t sure if the man would regard that as an act of vengeance or of mercy. He wasn’t even sure which of the two he might consider it to be.

“Your rookie is utterly terrified.”

Tseng gave only a barest acknowledgment of the new arrival. He knew he’d be coming sooner or later. Apparently Veld had chosen sooner. He, however, wasn’t interested in company at the moment.

“I was already only my way over when he called and told me you’d thrown him out,” the older Turk continued.

“He should be terrified. I destroy everything I touch,” the Wutaiian Turk spat in disgust. His mentor approached him, and calmly let a hand rest on his shoulder.

“He’s not afraid of you, Tseng. He’s afraid of what you might do. To yourself, not to him. Should he be?”

Tseng turned away and said nothing.

“He took your gun,” Veld added, and the Turk lieutenant’s hand instinctively sought out the holster beneath his jacket, only to find it empty.

“I have others,” he replied… and the sincerity of his own voice even frightened him.

---

Rude watched his friend pick in disinterest at the plate of meatloaf in front of him. He hadn’t managed to get much of it down himself, either, but for a wholly different reason. It was dry as the Corel Desert, and about as flavorful, too. Reno, though, would normally have wolfed it down and then asked if he could finish Rude’s plate as well.

Today, though, food seemed to be the last thing on the redhead’s mind.

He’d heard what had happened, of course. They all had, by now. He was still in something of a state of disbelief about Mayu’s untimely death, personally. She was so young… It just wasn’t fair. And from what little he’d managed to pry out of his fellow rookie, Tseng wasn’t handling it so well.

“You wanna talk?” Rude finally asked. Reno gave an uneasy sigh and lifted his gaze from the largely untouched plate.

“Fuck, man. I’m worried about him,” he replied, “Really worried. Like, I can’t eat ’cause my stomach hurts level worried.” He tossed his fork aside and glared at the plate. “Fuck it. I give up on lunch.”

“… Is he that bad?”

“Sure seemed like it this mornin’,” said Reno. “I half thought he was gonna send me flyin’ out the door if I didn’t leave willingly… for my own safety. He’s beyond pissed. At himself, mostly, but I think when you’re that angry, it’s gotta go somewhere, and I was right in the line of fire. I could tell.”

He visibly winced, one hand clutching his stomach.

“You okay?”

“Tch… yeah. I’m fine. I wasn’t kidding… This shit’s got me so freaked out, my stomach’s killin’ me. You didn’t see him last night, Rude. He was just… completely broken.” The redhead swallowed sharply. “And then this mornin’…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

Before Rude could inquire further, the other rookie’s PHS chimed, alerting him to a new text message. Reno fished the phone out of his pocket and and eyed the screen for a moment.

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m done eatin’. Veld wants to see me.”

“About Tseng?”

Reno shrugged. “Doesn’t say. But what else would it be about? I’ll see ya later.”

Rude watched him go and sighed as he turned back to his own meal. He wasn’t very hungry either, all of a sudden. And it had nothing to do with the quality of the food.

---

Reno knocked softly at the door to Veld’s office, and, once granted permission, stepped inside, closing it behind him. He had been hoping to see Tseng there… but wasn’t exactly shocked that he wasn’t. Instead, Remy was seated in front of Veld’s desk. The rookie made his way to the chair beside her and sat down.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” he queried.

“Yes. I did,” Veld began, “I’ll be speaking to everyone a little later, but… I thought it best to tell you first.”

Reno swallowed nervously. That didn’t sound ominous, or anything…

“Tseng will be taking a leave of absence, effective immediately. First and foremost, to return his sister’s body to Wutai and attend the funeral, and then… to take some personal time.”

“F-for how long?” he asked, eyes widening. Was this really just a leave of absence? Or was this… a resignation?

“Three weeks, at the minimum,” Veld replied, “But… I’ve left it up to him to decide when he’s ready to return.”

“What if he… ya know… doesn’t?”

“I don’t think it will come to that. But… should that ultimately be his choice, we will respect it.”

“… Yes, sir,” the redhead breathed. He couldn’t imagine the Turks without Tseng. Just the thought left him feeling chilled.

“I realize that this puts you in a somewhat awkward position, being that you won’t be eighteen for several more weeks yet. Tseng has asked that Remy temporarily take over as second in command while he’s gone… including taking responsibility for your guardianship until your birthday. Or until he returns,” Veld continued. “Of course… if you have an alternate preference…”

Reno shook his head. “Remy’s fine,” he said. It wasn’t as if he needed a babysitter. Just… someone to sign shit that needed signing, or whatever else he wasn’t allowed to do on his own yet. Any one of the other senior Turks could do it. Hell, once his birthday got here, he wouldn’t even need that. He’d be an adult, and wholly responsible for himself. His stomach gave an unpleasant heave in response to that thought. “… Is… that all, sir?” he asked.

“For now,” Veld replied, “I’ll be addressing the team in about an hour to update them on the situation. I would prefer you not discuss this with anyone until then.”

“Yes, sir,” Reno replied, and at Veld’s nod of dismissal, hightailed it out of his office. The hall was mercifully empty, but he couldn’t shake the sudden sense of being trapped that assailed him. He needed to get out of there. Now.

The redhead all but ran for the elevator, and jabbed the button that would take him up to the roof. Somehow, he made it the entire way without anyone else boarding, and he was grateful for that… because at the moment, he probably looked like he was five seconds away from losing it. As the doors opened, he virtually threw himself out into the open space and dropped to his knees, breathing in long gulps of fresh, cool air.

He stayed like that for several long moments before staggering to his feet and making his way over to the railing that encircled the Shinra Building roof. He gazed out across the city… before at last turning his back on the view and sinking down to the ground, leaning back against the short wall that supported the railing. Reno hugged his knees to his chest, and tried to calm his shaky, overly rapid breathing, groaning softly as the new position aggravated his already painfully upset stomach.

He wanted so badly to believe that this was temporary. That Tseng would come back and things would go back to… well… maybe not to the way they were, but to some semblance of normal, anyway.

But the more pessimistic side of him refused to be silent. And it kept telling him that he’d just lost another parent.

~end chapter 63~