Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 91: Spoiling a Surprise

By the time they’d dried off a bit and changed into less sopping wet clothes, the storm pummeling the little mountain village had abated somewhat. What had barely fifteen minutes ago been a relentless downpour had become a chill drizzle… at least for the moment. Judging by the incoming band of dark clouds, Reno was pretty sure they hadn’t seen all it had to offer quite yet.

But… the weather had calmed enough that they could slip out of the Shinra mansion and stay relatively dry. Thus, the pair of Turks had decided to risk a cold, wet walk back later and see what the tavern had on offer for dinner instead of fending for themselves in the kitchen. The tavern itself was really just the kitchen of the local inn and a handful of tables. As they arrived, Reno could smell the scent of fresh baked bread and some kind of roasted meat emanating from the back of the establishment.

He and Shay took a seat at the one empty table near the front windows and the redhead sighed as he leaned back and relaxed. It might not have been a “tourist destination”, but a guy could kind of get used to the homey feeling that permeated this place. It was quiet and laid back and if the food tasted half as good as it smelled, he was pretty sure he’d just found a new favorite place to visit. He grinned slightly and glanced up as a young woman approached them with silverware and a short, one-page menu.

He eyed her appreciatively. Apparently decent food wasn’t the only thing sleepy mountain towns had to offer. The girl was built. “Buxom” would have been an understatement. Those were some world-class tits right there… and he was pretty sure they were real, too.

“So… You on the menu?” he asked, his grin widening lecherously, and the girl narrowed her eyes at him.

“No,” she replied, with a tone of finality that suggested she got that comment a lot from visitors. Shay snorted a quiet laugh.

“Don’t mind him. He’s relatively harmless,” he chuckled. The redhead shot him a glare, which Shay dutifully pretended he hadn’t noticed. “I’ll have the shepard’s pie.”

“Same for me, I guess,” Reno said with a shrug, “And a beer?”

“Coming right up,” their waitress replied, in a distinctly cool tone.

“The fuck, Shay?” Reno hissed once she was out of earshot, “You tryin’ to shut me down before I even get her interested?”

Shay smirked. “Oh, she’s interested, alright. Interested in tossing you off the mountain.”

“Tits like that, it might almost be worth the risk.”

“Besides which… she can’t be more than fifteen or so,” the older Turk added, ignoring the commentary.

“So? I’m barely eighteen. And I definitely wasn’t a virgin at fifteen.”

“You know… I’d really prefer to return to Midgar and not have to explain why I had to leave your remains down in some ravine, feeding the nibelwolves. Because if she doesn’t murder you, I’m sure her father will be happy to oblige. He’s a trail guide… and quite large, if memory serves,” Shay teased, “I don’t think I’d get put in command of any more missions for a very long time, should that happen.”

Reno snickered loudly. “Yeah, yeah… okay. We’re here on business. I hear ya.”

Shay shook his head. “Speaking of us being here on business… a beer? Really?”

“Yeah… kinda took a chance on ’em not bein’ as strict about the drinking age around here. ‘Sides… t’s after quittin’ time, isn’t it?” the redhead replied.

“Technically speaking, I’m not sure there is a quitting time when you’re on assignment outside of Midgar. But I won’t say anything to Veld if you don’t,” he chuckled.

---

Tseng opened the door to his car and was just about to slide into the driver’s seat when he heard his name called from the far end of the parking deck. He glanced up, seeking out its source and spotted Kai and Saya heading toward him with purposeful strides.

“Oh, good… I’m glad we caught yeh before yeh left fer the night,” Saya said upon reaching him.

“Has something happened?” Tseng asked with a frown. Veld should have notified him immediately if there had been an incident… suspended or not. But Kai shook her head.

“No, no… it’s nothing like that. It’s about Rude’s promotion. Or… actually, it’s about the party we’re going to be throwing to celebrate his promotion,” Kai explained, “Tres asked Saya to plan it and Saya asked me to help. We’re trying to keep it under wraps for now, so we didn’t want to say anything in headquarters. Sato’s already caught wind of it somehow, and the more it gets discussed where people can overhear, the more likely a certain Turklingisn’t going to be very surprised come Friday.”

“I… see?” the Wutaiian Turk responded, not quite sure what that had to do with him.

“Annnyway,” Kai continued, “We need a place to actually have said party.”

“Tres was just goin’ ta take him ’round ta that wee bar down the road a ways, fer Odin’s sake…” Saya scoffed, distinctly unimpressed with her fellow Turk’s idea of a “party”.

“And your apartment is a lot bigger than either of ours…” said Kai.

“Or his…” Saya agreed.

“Or… pretty much anyone’s, other than Veld’s…”

“Plus yeh’ve got that lovely wee park behind yeh…” The two women looked up at him hopefully, and Tseng sighed.

There was little use in fighting it. He’d apparently already been forcibly volunteered for hosting duties, and suspected they’d been planning the whole thing around him accepting their proposal all afternoon. And as much as it might have normally annoyed him… in this particular instance, perhaps it wasn’t such a terrible idea. Kai had called him out earlier that day for making himself scarce of late… and she did have a point. A point that was reiterated during his session with Dr. Hildebrand this afternoon. Easing himself back into being social was one of the things he was supposed to be working on if he wanted his status as second in command restored.

“So long as you two personally handle the cleanup afterwards,” he finally acquiesced, “And ensure that any overly inebriated rookies, of which I’m sure there will be at least two, if past celebrations are anything to go by, make it safely home.”

Assuming he didn’t immediately give into his protective instincts and simply tuck Reno away in his guest room to sleep it off, of course. That was another requirement of the restoration of his authority. He had to start to show some progress towards acknowledging and reigning in his newly developed overly-protective streak… particularly towards his rookie. The doctor had been very clear on that. Apparently, the constant, nagging worry that something terrible might befall the redhead wasn’t “healthy” or “productive”… no matter how real that possibility was in their line of work.

“Yeh’ve got yerself a deal!” Saya readily agreed.

“And I will not be doing the cooking,” Tseng added as an afterthought, and Kai cast him a rather incredulous look.

“We’re celebrating a rookie’s promotion, Tseng… not trying to poison the entire team in one fell swoop,” she snorted. The Wutaiian Turk couldn’t quite stop the chuckle that escaped his lips.

---

Reno woke the following morning to bright sunlight and the smell of bacon. He sleepily rubbed his eyes and groaned as he dragged himself out of from under the covers before bringing his gaze around the one of the other two beds in the room. It should have been occupied. It had been when he’d gone to sleep, at any rate… but it seemed that Shay was an early riser. Hell, the son of a bitch had even made the bed before he’d slipped out to Ifrit knew where.

The redhead stretched as he made his way toward the bathroom. He desperately needed coffee. And as soon as he was showered and dressed, that’s precisely what he staggered into the kitchen in search of.

“Good morning!” Shay called out brightly, “You’re just in time… Breakfast is almost ready, and then we’re going to go out and enjoy some of this lovely morning mountain air.”

“Tch… take the chipper down a notch or two, will ya, Shay? I’m not caffeinated yet,” the rookie yawned. The senior Turk laughed and helpfully filled a mug with fresh coffee for him. Reno grinned gratefully and topped it off with sugar before drinking deeply. After he’d drained three quarters of the cup, he came up for a breath. “So what were you sayin’ ’bout mountain air?”

“The research team hit a bit of a snag, I’m afraid. A damaged sample crate. The whole thing will need to be unpacked, inspected, specimens replaced if necessary, and repackaged, so there will be a slight delay in loading the helicopter. I thought we’d use the time productively and see to the monitoring equipment at the reactor while we wait.”

“Works for me. How far is it?” he asked, reaching for the coffee pot to get a refill.

“Not far. We can probably reach it in half an hour or so, if we don’t dawdle,” Shay replied, “The trail is a bit sketchy in a couple of places, but we should be alright. So… breakfast?”

Reno glanced over at the bacon sizzling in a large skillet on the stove, next to another pan full of diced potatoes that had, by then, turned a crisp golden brown. He could smell cooked onion, too, and maybe some sort of peppers?

“Potatoes O’Brien,” said Shay, dishing some out onto a pair of plates and setting one in front of the redhead, “It’s Sato’s recipe… though to be honest, I think the real reason he makes it is because Saya forces him share cooking duty at home and he’d rather be doing just about anything else. It’s only four ingredients and you literally just toss it all in a hot pan and give it the occasional stir. Tasty, though.”

“Smells good,” Reno replied, digging in. And it tasted just as good as it smelled. The redhead quickly managed to polish off two platefuls, along with several strips of bacon and three more cups of coffee.

It wasn’t long before the pair were geared up for a trek through the mountains and making their way down the road that led out of the village. A handful of locals were out and about as well… including the busty waitress from last night, who pointedly glowered the redhead as they passed. Apparently he’d made an impression.

Soon, however, Reno and Shay were winding their way up a long, snaking path.

The trail was well-traveled, clearly. In fact, at least some of it looked to have been intentionally cut into the mountainside, and Reno wondered if that was the work of the villagers or of Shinra. After all… the Company must have needed a decent path during construction. And for future maintenance.

He turned his attention to the view as the trail narrowed and wrapped around an outcropped ledge. He could just make out the edge of Nibelheim from the vantage point, and was a little surprised to discover how high they were. He’d known they’d been heading gradually uphill, but hadn’t realized just how far they’d gone. Shay had been right about the views, too… they were pretty amazing. The mountains seemed to stretch on forever, like an impenetrable wall of stone. He couldn’t see much of anything beyond them… at least not from his current position… but looking down over the ledge, he could see a deep valley, and thought, at least, that he could detect the serpentine shape of a river hidden amongst the trees that lined the lower altitudes.

“Oh, wonderful,” Shay suddenly groaned, and Reno pulled up short, turning his attention on his fellow Turk. It didn’t take him long to spot the problem. A wide chasm stretched out ahead of them, with a long rope bridge spanning the gap. Sort of. One side had snapped, and it now hung slumped, over the intimidating drop.

“Lemme guess… Reactor’s that-a-way,” the redhead said, nodding to the bridge.

“Afraid so,” Shay sighed, “It must have been damaged in the storm last night. We’ll have to backtrack and go the long way.”

“How long’s the long way?”

“Counting the time it will take us to hike all the way back to the fork in the trail… at least another two and a half hours before we get there.”

Reno let out a groan that echoed Shay’s and glanced at his watch. They’d started out pretty early… but if they were tacking on an extra couple hours out to the reactor… and then another extra couple hours for the return trip… plus the time they’d be spending at the reactor. He shook his head, irritated. It’d probably be dinner time by the time they hauled their asses back into town. Reno looked over at the damaged bridge.

“Ya know…” he said, thoughtfully, “It wouldn’t be that bad…”

“… What wouldn’t be ‘that bad’?” Shay asked with a note of hesitation.

“Crossin’ that thing.” Reno closed the short distance between himself and the bridge and gave the remaining side a rough shake. It barely moved. Really… it wouldn’t be that difficult. They had an obstacle on the gauntlet just like this. They did it all the time. He glanced back at Shay and grinned, and then stepped out onto the lower of the two supporting ropes on the remaining side. He gripped the top rope tight and bounced, hard.

“Reno!” Shay shouted in alarm, but the bridge held.

“See? It’s fine. We can get across this no problem,” the redhead said, ignoring the other Turk’s concern.

“I don’t know about this…” Shay replied as the rookie stepped back onto solid ground again. Reno folded his arms over his chest.

“Tch… Come on, Shay. What’s the point of doin’ the exact same thing in trainin’ every week if we’re never gonna use that skill in real life?”

“Well… it would save us a lot of time…” he acknowledged. He glanced down into the deep chasm, and Reno reflexively followed his gaze. The redhead had to admit… that was a hell of a drop. He wondered if anyone had ever actually fallen here. And if so, whether or not they’d lived to tell anyone about it. Shay let out a long breath and took a step towards the bridge. “Let’s be safe about this, though, and take it one at a time. No sense in putting extra weight on it when we don’t have to. I… um… suppose I’ll go first, then. I’m in command, after all.”

Shay swallowed sharply and stepped out onto the remaining half of the bridge, and Reno watched as he carefully shuffled his way across, hand over hand, one foot after the other. The ropes swayed languidly in the wind rushing up between the peaks. The senior Turk had to pause at the midpoint when a particularly nasty gust sent him almost horizontal on the pair of lines for a few seconds… at which point Reno began to wonder if maybe this might not have been the terrific idea he’d thought it was. He hadn’t realized that the wind up here was so strong. Had that been part of his considerations… he might not have been quite so gung ho about this.

At last, however, Shay made it safely to the other side, and the redhead sighed in relief. Aside from that one slightly frightening moment, the crossing had gone off without a hitch. His confidence in his decision restored, Reno gave a faint laugh and climbed out onto the ropes again himself.

It quickly became apparent that the setup for the gauntlet was nothing like this. For one thing, the ropes back in the training hall didn’t have wooden planks tied into them that he had to constantly step around and avoid. And the ropes in the training hall weren’t hanging over a hundred foot drop, either, nor did they swing unsettlingly every few seconds when the breeze picked up.

“Just… don’t think about it…” he said softly, as he made it a point to tear his gaze away from the ground far below him, and instead focus solely on the bridge and his distant destination and where he was putting his feet. Heights had never particularly bothered him before now… but then again, he really couldn’t recall another instance in which he’d been this high up, supported by only a couple of ropes stretched across certain doom. It kind of put things into a slightly different perspective.

But the other side was growing steadily closer with every passing second. Like he’d said to Shay… getting across this thing no problem. No problem at all.

When he was within about fifteen feet from safety, however, “no problem at all” suddenly turned into a very big problem.

He was so close he could practically taste it. Just a dozen or so more shuffling steps and he’d be across. But it seemed the fates had other plans for him today, and without warning, the rope he was standing on shuddered violently.

“The fuck?” he muttered, glancing back the way he’d come just in time to see several boards drop away from where they’d been bound.

“Reno, hurry!”

It took him a moment to realized what was happening. The rope shuddered again, and several more boards fell… and this time, the redhead instinctively knew. It was breaking. One goddamn strand at a time, just like in the fucking movies.

“Fuck!” he ground out and immediately moved to quicken his pace. Too late, as it turned out. One second, he was frantically trying to cover the remaining distance in record time… The next, he was hanging from the top rope, the support beneath his feet suddenly gone. He heard the rope whip through the air below him, slapping loudly into cliff face, the remains of its wooden walkway clattering against the stone.

Reno grunted with effort as he repositioned his hands on the remaining rope. He could already feel the rough material digging painfully into the soft flesh of his palms. He hoisted his legs upward until they could wrap around it, taking some of the weight off his arms. Thank Shiva that hadn’t happened when he was out in the middle of the damned thing. It was terrifying enough having it happen this close to safety. He quickly started to move towards Shay again, pushing and pulling himself along like some sort of monkey on a vine. Finally, he reached the edge.

“Heh… See?” he said, with a somewhat breathless grin, “No problem at all.” He carefully swung himself down from the rope, and Shay pulled him away from the edge. “… Let’s never do that again.”

“Agreed,” Shay replied, nodding enthusiastically.

---

Rude turned away from the computer. He cracked his neck as he stood up and headed out into the hallway. It was long past time for a break. There hadn’t been any further word of Fuhito or Istev or the mercenaries in general… no matter how closely he scoured the intelligence reports. They’d just up and vanished. There was good news from Wutai, however… finally. The defenses around the capital city were weakening. It was going to take awhile yet before SOLDIER took full control of the city, but most of the outlying area was securely under Shinra control. It was only a matter of time.

He’d be glad when it was over. They’d already been through so much. Luca was gone. Tseng was still on suspension. Tres was exhausted. Everyone on the team was overworked and on edge. If he’d had hair, he was pretty sure he’d have been pulling it out by now. Trying to put that thought out of his mind, Rude made his way down to the lounge, hoping that someone other than Veld had made the coffee today.

As he passed by Remy’s office, though, he paused, hearing quiet voices from inside.

“That’s not what yeh said last week,” Sato declared, and the rookie could practically hear the smug, self-satisfied grin he was surely sporting. Remy sighed loudly.

“That’s because last week, you were using your… ‘talents’… to scare the living daylights out of any poor, unsuspecting employee unfortunate enough to walk into that little boobytrap of yours downstairs. Plus, I’m on a first name basis with half the maintenance department thanks to you. Now… Can you do it or can’t you?”

Sato chuckled softly, and Rude heard his chair squeak as he leaned back in it.

“‘Course I can do it. I’ve been studyin’ up on Istev’s designs since we first found out he’s involved. I can build Research a replica o’ the one that took out the power substation, no problem. And the dud that didnae blow. Now… yeh want the ones they was plannin’ on usin’ in the reactor themselves… that’ll be a wee bit harder. Ne’er saw ’em in person. Only got the descriptions from the rest o’ the team ta go offa.”

“Do whatever you can, please,” Remy replied, “The Research department has labeled this high priority.”

“Aye, alright. I’m on it. The wee party’ll need a little entertainment, anyway,” Sato snickered, and Rude was instantly all ears. This was the first he’d heard anything about a party.

“One, how do you already know about that? And two… nothing had better blow up at the party,” Remy said threateningly, through clenched teeth.

“Yer no fun at all… yeh know that, right?”

“Sato… I’m warning you. If I see so much as a fuse on Friday…”

“Alright… Dunnae go gettin’ yer panties in a twist, lass. All yeh had ta do was say so.”

“Hmph. The day I believe that is the day you finally blow your sorry backside to kingdom come with one of your little ‘custom projects’. I mean it, Sato. No. Explosives. At the party. Is that clear?”

“Aye, clear as crystal,” Sato sighed, clearly disappointed. Rude heard one of them – likely Sato – rise from their chair, and the rookie hurried to make himself scare before he was discovered. By the time anyone stepped out of that office, he was around the corner and walking into the lounge as if nothing were amiss.

So… a party, eh? He wondered what that was all about. At present, there was very little to celebrate, after all. He poured himself a cup of coffee and took a seat on the couch to think.

If Sato thought he could get away with something exploding, it clearly wasn’t a company function. And if word hadn’t yet spread to Rude – and, going by Remy’s reaction, hadn’t meant to have spread to Sato yet, either –there was obviously some element of surprise involved. Maybe something planned for the rookies? Neither Cissnei nor Rodney had gone through Hell Week yet, and they were about due for it… though it would make more sense to celebrate the completion of Hell Week, rather than the beginning of it… and if it was planned for Friday, there certainly wasn’t time for that.

So what, then?

There weren’t any birthdays or anniversaries or other milestones coming up that he was aware of. The war was going well but there was still a lot that needed to happen before Shinra could claim victory. Maybe… Tseng had been cleared for duty? That would certainly warrant a party. But if so, why all the secrecy? Surely Veld would have made an announcement to that effect at the morning briefing.

He took another sip of coffee and leaned back. He didn’t have enough information to figure this out yet. He needed more data.

The lounge door opened, admitting Cissnei to the room. She smiled widely at him and headed for the coffee pot as well, pouring herself a cup.

“Hey, Rude… taking a little break?” she asked in a friendly tone. The other rookie nodded.

“Can only stare at those reports for so long before you start to go cross-eyed,” he replied, and then smirked slightly as an idea occurred to him. “So… looking forward to the party?”

Cissnei very nearly dropped her mug as she spun to face him, her face falling in dismay.

“It was supposed to be a surprise! Who told you?! Ugh… it was Sato, wasn’t it? I knew it couldn’t have been just me and Rodney he let it slip to…” she lamented. Rude blinked in shock, the reaction thankfully hidden by dark lenses. He was quick to recover, however, and forced his best knowing smile. Cissnei sighed and shook her head, laughing softly. “I guess we all should have known we’d never be able to keep a secret from you.” She grinned at him. “Well… since you already know, congratulations on the promotion. You deserve it.”

“T-thanks…” Rude managed, caught off-guard for a second time. This time, though, Cissnei’s eyes widened in abject horror as realization set in.

“Oh, no… No! You… You didn’t know about that part yet, did you?!” she groaned, wincing. “Ugh… me and my big mouth.”

Rude snickered softly and got up from the couch.

“I can’t believe I was the one who spoiled it,” Cissnei continued, shaking her head. Rude wrapped an arm around the younger Turk’s shoulders in warm a side-hug.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be sure to act surprised.”

---

Reno clambered up a small incline and paused for a moment, pointedly not looking back at the remains of the bridge. He shuddered slightly in the cool air as he stood, still catching his breath from his unexpected scramble along the rope. The wind had picked up again, and the sky was darkening once more. He really hoped they weren’t going to get caught in another downpour.

“Hey, Shay? How much farther’s the reactor? I’m not likin’ the way those clouds are lookin’…”

“Not far,” the other Turk answered, nodding towards an opening in the mountainside a short distance from where they now stood. “Actually… That’s it, right there.”

“The damn thing’s inside the mountain?”

“Well parts of it, of course. It’s a mako reactor. It goes deepdown into the planet, after all. But this entrance is mostly just a leftover staging site from when the reactor was being built. We don’t really need to worry about anything in there. It’s all falling apart anyway, at this point. We’re only using it as a shortcut to the main facility on the other side of this peak.”

Shay lead him into the little cave… which soon opened up into a not-so-little cave… and Reno suddenly found himself in a virtual labyrinth of pipes and walkways and staircases and ladders. Far below, he could make out the familiar green glow of raw mako. He followed Shay across a short wooden bridge and down a set of metal stairs to a platform overlooking a chasm. The glow was coming from somewhere very deep inside of it. They continued on, edging around old pipes nearly as tall as the rookie himself, and then down a ladder bolted firmly to the rock wall, which led to a second, lower platform. From there, it was through a rough-looking door made of scrap wood tenuously strapped in place over a opening in the rock. Without warning, Reno found himself out in the open again as the pair emerged behind the towering edifice of the Nibelheim Reactor.

The redhead blinked in surprise as he realized that Shinra had built the thing in a natural hollow in the mountainside, and merely tunneled straight through one of the peaks that walled it in to make their shortcut. He and Shay circled around the structure until they reached the stairs that led upwards, into the reactor. As they headed up, the redhead glanced back and spotted a trail leading in from below as well.

“So… is that the way back to town, then?” he asked, nodding over his shoulder.

“That would be it,” Shay confirmed. “And you’ll understand pretty quickly why most people take the bridge once we’re done here.”

They headed inside, and Reno couldn’t help but feel a bit confused… and slightly unnerved… by the sight that greeted them. Granted, he didn’t spend a lot of time hanging around mako reactors, but there was something… weird… about this one, in particular. For one, the entryway was little more than a long catwalk heading off towards, what he assumed, must have been the reactor core. Usually there was a control room or a monitoring station or… something… before you got into the guts of one of these things. But then, out in the middle of nowhere, with no permanent workers on site, maybe that simply wasn’t needed.

Shay shrugged out of the backpack he’d hauled the whole way up the mountain, and set it on the floor, opening up the zipper.

“Well, at least this part should be fairly easy,” he chuckled, handing the rookie a pair camera. “Latest from R&D… all we have to do is find a good spot to attach them, and push the button. Apparently the hardware does the rest all on its own. Four out here, four in the next chamber, and we’ll put one more up to cover the entrance exterior on our way out.”

“No problem,” Reno replied. Shay pulled two more of the camera units from the bag and walked to the far side of the catwalk, studying his options for a moment, before finally nodding and placing the first camera above the door to the next room. He pressed the button on the side and then jumped slightly as the hand-sized machine obediently extended four little arms and clamped itself around one of the pipes running along the wall. A red light blinked a few times and then stayed on, indicating that the camera was functioning.

“I guess they weren’t exaggerating when they said these things do it all themselves,” Shay snickered.

“Okay… gotta admit. That was pretty fuckin’ cool,” Reno said, grinning. “You finish up out here, I’ll go hit up the next room.”

“Reno, hold on… there’s something you should know about –” the senior Turk began, but the teen had already brushed past him and through the door. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to see – more pipes and humming machinery, most likely – but what was actually spread out before him made the redhead pull up short. He looked back at Shay, and then turned towards the sight, half expecting it to have been some strange hallucination.

But no… the odd-looking red pod-shapped… things… were still there. Three rows of them, in fact, a narrow staircase rising up towards yet another door at the center of the back wall. It looked like something out of an Ifrit-forsaken sci-fi movie. Each of the pods or tanks or whatever the hell they were had a single round window on the front, from which the eerie glow of mako emanated, casting a bluish-green hue over the room. Pipes and tubes snaked all around the chamber, connecting the pods into the much larger pipes branching out across the ceiling. At the back, the word “JENOVA” was stenciled over the door.

“Uh… Shay?”

“Yeah… That’s what I was trying to tell you. This is an experimental reactor. There’s some pretty strange stuff in here.”

Reno eyed the first row of tanks somewhat nervously. Something about them was decidedly unsettling.

“So… what are those things?” he asked, and Shay shook his head.

“I don’t know, exactly. Part of one of Hojo’s projects, apparently. Luca once told me that he thought they were modified mako purification tanks… but he had no idea what they’ve been modified to do, and to be honest, I’ve never had any desire to ask someone who might. They give me the creeps. I think I’d rather not know.”

“What’s back there?” Reno queried, eyeing the large door at the top of the stairs.

“Not a clue,” Shay replied, “All I know is that the Jenova Project is decades old, highly classified, and entirely under Hojo’s dominion. You need top level security clearance to get anything more than the name. I’m not sure even Veld knows much more than that… and if he does, he’s certainly not allowed to share it with the likes of us.”

“Huh. Weird,” the redhead stated, nonchalantly… though in reality, it creeped him out a little, too. Of course, logically, he knew perfectly well that there was plenty about Shinra that he didn’t know. And probably never would know. Trade secrets, top secret projects, backroom deals… largely things that had little to no impact on his day to day life. He was just a bit less prepared than he’d realized to physically walk into one of those things out of the blue.

“… Let’s… just get the rest of those cameras set up, shall we?” Shay said, breaking in on his silent reflection, “You said yourself, there may be more rain moving in. Best to finish up and head back before the weather turns. I, for one, don’t relish the idea of spending the night here.”

Reno shuddered at the thought.

“Tch… you ‘n me both,” he quickly agreed.

---

“Yes, sir. Yes… Yes, sir, I know. I’ll be there. Yes, sir. Goodbye.” Rodney scowled slightly as he ended the call and tucked his PHS back into his jacket’s inner pocket… and then jumped as a pair of hands suddenly gripped his shoulders from behind. A faint giggle from the direction of the unexpected assault made him roll his eyes. “Must you do that, Cissy?” he sighed.

“Must you keep calling me ‘Cissy’ after I’ve repeatedly asked you to knock it off?” the other rookie countered.

“Yes,” Rodney deadpanned, turning to glare at her.

“Well, there’s your answer, then.” She drifted past him and took a seat behind her desk, settling in for a moment before glancing up at him. “New assignment?”

“… No. Just the Colonel being his usual overbearing self. I’m wanted at home this weekend for a ‘family discussion’,” he muttered, rolling his eyes, “Those are always fun.”

“Ouch. Sorry I asked,” Cissnei replied, casting him an understanding smile. Rodney shook his head and leaned back in his chair, managing a faint smile in return.

Cissnei was the only person he’d ever felt comfortable talking to about his father. She was a military brat herself, and even though she’d lost her parents at a fairly young age, she still instinctively understood where he was coming from whenever the subject came up. True, SOLDIER was a little different from the general military… but the groups had more than enough similarities between them for her to grasp what it was like for him growing up in the shadow of a decorated Shinra army field commander, himself the descendant of military heroes past, who expected his son to “aspire to live up to his lineage of greatness”… or else. His father was already less than thrilled with him for choosing the Turks over SOLDIER when he’d had the chance – or opting to forego both and follow in his own footsteps, joining the Shinra Army – to begin with. Being anything less than the best of the best now simply wouldn’t be condoned.

“You’re… not going to miss the party, though… are you?” she asked.

“Not if I can help it,” Rodney snorted, “It may be the last fun I ever have. I don’t know what crawled up his ass this time, but he’s ticked about something. And I’m sure it involves me. It always does.” He shook his head and leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his desk. “I may have to leave a little early, though. If I’m not in Junon first thing Saturday morning, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“You know… you don’t have to keep trying so hard to be his perfect little soldier. You’re not a child anymore.”

“Hmph… do you want to inform the Colonel of that? Because I don’t.”

Cissnei giggled quietly and stood up, crossing the room and slipping around behind him to give him a hug.

“Not on your life,” she replied, “I’ve met the man, remember?” She gently rested her chin on the top of his head for a moment before releasing him from her grasp. “Just remember, though. I like you just the way you are, perfect or not. So would everyone else, if you quit acting like such a brown-nosing jerk all the time and gave them the chance to really get to know you.”

Rodney smiled in spite of himself. “Thanks, Cissy.”

“But I’d like you a lot more if you’d quit calling me that!” she laughed, teasingly smacking him in the back of the head.

“Never going to happen,” the other rookie smirked.

~end of chapter 91~