Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 19: The Spring Thaw

Winter carried on for a few more weeks… but eventually the days slowly began to get longer and warmer and the snow in Midgar started to melt. A part of Reno was a little sad to see it go. He liked the snow… but, on the other hand, he was also kind of sick of freezing his ass off every time he stepped outside. Plus… spring meant that his birthday was fast approaching, and since becoming a Turk – and having people around who actually remembered it and made a big deal of it – he’d come to look forward to the date. So, yeah… ultimately, the pros of the changing season outweighed the cons.

He sighed softly as he stepped out of his apartment building, glancing skyward at the looming clouds that had gathered overnight, and shook his head. Rain incoming… that figured. In fact, that was how he’d known, ever since he was a child in the slums, that spring really was here. The rainy season was upon them. The first few weeks after winter went back into hibernation for another year tended to be wet ones in Midgar, even down below in the Slums.

But on the bright side… that only meant a few more weeks before he could try driving with the top down. The redhead grinned as he hopped into his car. He’d been looking forward to that from the moment he’d bought the thing.

By the time he was pulling into the Shinra Building’s secure parking deck, rain was, indeed, already spattering his windshield and he could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Sounded like they might be in for a real storm. As he parked and made his way towards the elevator, he heard a familiar voice call out behind him.

“Hey! Wait for me!”

Reno grinned as he turned, spotting Kai hurrying to catch up to him.

“Thought you were still benched for another couple weeks,” he said, eyeing the sling that kept her arm immobile.

“I am… for field work. But I’m officially approved to resume training supervision and desk duty. Thank Titan, because I don’t know how much longer I could have spent watching Shadow & Sword reruns before I went crazy from the repetition,” the tiny Turk snickered, “I’ve watched both past seasons and all the episodes of the current season three times since I’ve been off…”

“Tch… I can tell ya exactly how much I could watch before I lost it…” Reno replied, pressing the button for Fifty-eight. “One episode. And I might not even make it all the way through. I don’t know what you ‘n Rude ‘n Cissnei see in that show. It’s sooooo boring… How’s the arm?”

“Stiff. A little sore… but I think that’s more from not being allowed to use it for so long than the injury. And you’ve got no room to criticize. You have exactly zero taste when it comes to entertainment, my preciously little baby Turkling. I’ve seen your movie collection…”

Reno rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored the name. He was glad enough to see Kai back at work – finally – to put up with it. For now.

The elevator arrived at headquarters and the pair stepped out into the hallway.

“So… Catch me up,” Kai said, following him into the lounge. Tseng was already there, reading through a folder of reports at the table, “I miss anything interesting while I was gone?”

“Nah, not really. Same old shit.”

The Turk lieutenant chuckled softly, and took a sip of his tea. “You’re not going to mention your little culinary adventure?” he queried without looking up. Kai grinned widely.

“Who’d he poison this time?” she asked.

“No one!” Reno snapped, shooting his mentor a glare, “For fuck’s sake… can’t we drop that already?”

“I consider it a cautionary tale, at this point,” Tseng replied, with a somewhat teasing smile, “Just in case someone else is ever foolish enough to let you talk them into cooking for them.” He turned to Kai. “He hadn’t been out of the hospital a week before he set Rude’s kitchen on fire.”

Kai blinked and then laughed, shaking her head. “Geez… I knewyour cooking was practically lethal, but I had no idea it could also cause property damage…”

The redhead sighed. “Yeah, yeah… I’m a fuckin’ menace. Laugh it up.” He’d endured a solid week and a half of teasing for the fact after it had happened. Rude hadn’t left out a single detail in his retelling of the tale. That’s not to say it wasn’t entirely warranted in this instance… but it still got old after awhile. He’d hoped that the joke had finally run its course, but apparently Kai needed to hear about it, too. “Anyway… speakin’ of team gossip… Are the rumors true?” he asked, hoping to change the subject.

“Mmm… and which rumors might those be?” Tseng asked, and Reno rolled his eyes.

“You know damn well what rumors, Boss… Sykes’ Hell Week. He’s due, right?”

“Hell Week?!” Kai exclaimed, suddenly excited, “Oh… please tell me there’s a Hell Week coming up…”

Tseng calmly flipped to the next page of his report, and reached for his tea again.

“It is something I should probably get around to,” he acknowledged, “Eventually…”

“Oh, come on, Tseng!” Kai lamented, “If there’s a Hell Week in the works, you’ve got to tell me. You know how much I love Hell Week!”

Tseng chuckled softly and glanced up.

“… Plans are being made. But I’ve not yet set a firm date, so kindly refrain from discussing it where the rookies might overhear.”

Kai stood in front of him, staring him down for several seconds… only to be met with Tseng’s unperturbed smile. At last, she scoffed and turned on her heel, heading out the door.

“I’d better hear about it as soon as you decide when it’s happening…” she called over her shoulder. Reno snickered and helped himself to some coffee – thankfully not Veld’s this morning – before sitting down on the couch on the opposite side of the room.

“You’d think it was her Hell Week,” he commented. Tseng snorted softly.

“Actually, Kai was a nervous wreck when she was told of her own impending Hell Week. Alyssa and I spent a rather inordinate amount of time trying to calm her down that weekend,” he said, smirking slightly, “I very nearly had to carry her into the office the following Monday. I gave her a ride that morning and she refused to get out of my car.”

Reno snickered unabashedly at the mental image that conjured up, before slowly sobering.

“Hey, Tseng? … I’ve always been kinda curious. What was Alyssa like? I mean… I know she and Kai were… ya know… together, but…” He shrugged not quite sure how to finish that sentence.

“Kai’s never told you about her?” Tseng queried, with a surprised look. The redhead shifted somewhat uncomfortably.

“Well… I’ve never really asked her. I kinda didn’t wanna stir up painful memories ‘n shit.”

“I don’t think she’d mind. Kai… has never been one to try and bury the past. It’s how she has always come to terms with such things. By forcing herself to face the pain head on, rather than running from it, until it simply stops hurting,” he replied, “But to answer your question, Alyssa was… unique. She wasn’t the sort of person you would initially expect to join the Turks, even though she was very good at it.”

“What’dya mean?”

“She was very kindhearted. Very gentle. Even shy at times. But very dedicated. Her specialty was stealth recon. I don’t think there’s been a Turk before or since who was so difficult to detect. She could slip in anywhere, and no one would ever know. And she would have done anything for Kai.” He sighed, and reached for his tea again, taking a long sip before continuing. “The day she died, I very nearly lost them both. It was a long time before Kai could even be civil towards me again… and longer still before she truly forgave me.”

“So… I guess they were pretty serious, then, huh?”

“I suppose that’s one way to put it,” Tseng replied, somewhat bemused, “Why, if I may ask, the sudden interest in her?”

Reno shrugged. “Just thinkin’ lately,” he said, “I mean… Ashland basically started a whole new life ’cause he had family he wanted to protect. But then you got Turks like Veld who have a wife ‘n a kid ‘n aren’t goin’ anywhere… and like Sato, with his three ex-wives that hate him… Why torture yourself like that? I mean… it seems like fallin’ in love’s way more trouble than it’s worth. ‘Specially for people like us.”

“Only two of Sato’s exes hate him, as far as I’m aware. And I notice that I, myself, was pointedly left off of that list… Concerned I might take offense?” Tseng chuckled, and the redhead suddenly sat up straighter, eyes widening.

“No… I mean… I’m not knockin’ ’em for it or anything…” he quickly stammered, hands up in a placating gesture. Tseng smirked, and Reno rolled his eyes. “I guess I’m just sayin’… I don’t get it. Why let yourself get in that deep when you might end up losin’ ’em? Or gettin’ taken out and leavin’ ’em on their own? What’s wrong with leavin’ things at sex? Seems a lot simpler to me…”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Tseng replied, “If such relationships suit you. Some people simply want more.” He cocked his head slightly to one side. “What’s brought this up all of a sudden? I’ve never known you to take much interest in other people’s relationships… beyond availing yourself of every possible opportunity to interject with some innuendo-filled comment, that is…”

“I dunno…” Reno said, shrugging. “I s’pose… seeing so many of us pairin’ up like that even with all the risks we take on… I guess maybe it made me wonder how screwed up I really am that I’m not even vaguely interested. You know Sato’s seein’ someone now?”

Tseng raised an eyebrow. “No, actually… I didn’t.”

Reno wasn’t really surprised. Hell, he’d only found out over the weekend. And mostly by accident, at that. He’d run into the pair at a movie on Saturday, prompting the Mideelian Turk to introduce him to a very nice young woman named Victoria… who he’d apparently been seeing long enough for her to have heard an anecdote or two about the redhead from Sato.

Tseng set his reports aside, and stood up, moving to join his protege on the couch.

“No two people are the same, Reno,” Tseng said after a brief silence. He let his hand come to rest on the back of the younger man’s neck, squeezing gently. “Trying to compare what works for one person with what works for you personally is usually nothing more than an exercise in frustration. There is nothing wrong with you. You are simply not Sato. Nor are you Kai, or Veld, or Ashland… or myself, for that matter.”

The younger man snorted softly, and grinned. “I dunno, boss… The way you cook? You sure I’m not you?”

“As lacking as my food may be, I will happily remind you that I have neither poisoned anyone with it, nor have I had occasion to set fire to an entire kitchen,” the Turk lieutenant returned, teasingly. Reno groaned.

“For the hundredth time… it wasn’t the whole kitchen!”

---

Rude snickered quietly to himself as his friend’s unexpected proclamation reached him out in the hallway. Apparently the story of his less than successful dinner was being told once again. Served him right, too. Rude’d had to replace two pans, one of the grates on his cooktop, and repaint the wall behind the stove… as well as the ceiling, which had been stained a faint purplish blue from what Rude had later determined to be pureed blueberries.

He turned at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, and spotted Cissnei walked towards him, an amused smile on her face, as well.

“Poor Reno,” she giggled.

“… He’ll survive,” Rude chuckled in reply. “Ten to one odds by this time next month it’ll be one of his favorite stories to tell the rookies. Umm… Hey, Cissnei… ?”

He paused for a moment, and swallowed sharply. He’d been putting this off, but… there was something he wanted to ask her.

He’d actually tried once already – shortly after Reno had been released from the hospital and he was able to finally stop worrying about one friend long enough to focus on another – but he’d chickened out at the last minute and ended up asking her to spar with him instead of inviting her over to his place for dinner and a movie the way he’d intended. And then Reno had come dangerously close to roasting himself, and plans had been put on hold until he could deal with that damage.

“Yes, Rude?” Cissnei prodded, and he belatedly realized that he’d been silently staring at her for several seconds now. He awkwardly cleared his throat.

“I… was wondering…” he started, and Cissnei grinned slightly.

“Yeees…”

“Would you… I mean, if you don’t want to, that’s alright, but… I’d like it if… um… maybe we could…”

“I would love to go out with you, Rude,” she giggled. The bald Turk blushed slightly and shook his head.

“… Was it that obvious?”

“Obvious? I’ve been waiting for you to try and ask me again ever since our ‘sparring’ session last week,” Cissnei said, smiling widely. “You’re so cute when you’re nervous…”

He breathed a faint sigh of relief and grinned. “Sunday night? I’ll make dinner and we could… maybe watch Shadow & Sword together?”

“That sounds terrific!” she replied, hesitating only a moment before leaning in and softly kissing him on the cheek. Her face, too, had taken on a slightly pinkish hue when she pulled away, and she smiled somewhat shyly. “Er… See you at the morning briefing, okay?”

Rude nodded faintly as she took her leave, heading down the hall to her own office. His hand rose slowly to his cheek, and he grinned. That had ended up being a lot easier than he’d thought it would…

---

By Thursday, Reno realized he had been right. Spring had definitely arrived in Midgar. After the first couple of weeks of off and on rain showers, the weather abruptly changed again… to a near-constant downpour. Reno made a soft sound of disgust, as he gazed out of his bedroom window at the gloomy morning that greeted him – and then nearly jumped out of his skin as a particularly deafening crash of thunder boomed over the city.

“For fuck’s sake…” he muttered. “When the hell’s this gonna let up?”

This storm had been raging for going on three days already, and didn’t look like it was going to be breaking up anytime soon. Had Midgar not been largely made of concrete and steel, it would have been a soggy mess by now. Lira had told him yesterday that large sections of the slums were flooding. Even Wall Market wasn’t immune, and she’d spent much of the phone call lamenting the ankle-deep puddles that had appeared in parts of her neighborhood and the fact that Corneo had so much machinery running to pump the water out towards the edge of the sector that she could hardly get any sleep at night. She’d heard from customers that things were especially bad over in Sectors 3 and 4.

What few customers she had, that is…

The Honeybee Inn hadn’t shut down quite yet, but a lot of the smaller brothels and businesses in Wall Market had. They just weren’t getting enough clientele coming through to justify staying open. Even the Honeybee had cut shifts down to the bare minimum until things dried out. Reno had told her in no uncertain terms that if things got any worse down there that she should come and stay with him, topside, for awhile… and by the time they’d hung up, Lira had sounded fed up enough with the situation to take him up on the offer sooner rather than later.

Reno yanked the curtains closed again and yawned, stretching his arms over his head until his left shoulder gave its now familiar crack. The storm had woken him up early… he still had almost an hour and a half before he was due at work. Maybe he’d give that recipe he’d tried at Rude’s place another shot. After all… pancakes were more of a breakfast food than a dinner food anyway. He’d have to leave out the blueberries this time, since he didn’t have any on hand… but he was pretty sure he could scrape together the rest of the ingredients. And maybe make some substitutes for whatever he might be missing.

He still couldn’t believe he’d fucked it up so bad that Rude had banned him from his kitchen. For life. And he was pretty sure his friend really was serious about that, too. But how the hell was he supposed to know you weren’t supposed to pour water on a grease fire? It’s not like anyone had ever actually taught him how to cook. He’d learned by trial and error.

Okay… so there had, admittedly, been a significant number errors during those trials over the years. But he managed.

The redhead sighed and rummaged though one of the cabinets until he found a box of cereal. Maybe he’d try the pancakes again for dinner tonight, instead. He was still only half awake and he wasn’t really in the mood to put that much effort into breakfast. Or put out another blaze…

He’d just filled the bowl and was on the verge of adding milk when his PHS started to ring. Brow furrowed, he set the container aside and hurried back to his bedroom to retrieve the device.

“Reno, here…” he answered a moment later.

“Get dressed and get into the office. Priority one,” Veld’s voice replied. Reno blinked at the somewhat abrupt order, but quickly shook himself out of it.

“You got it, sir. On my way.”

He ended the call and headed for the closet, dressing in record time, before collecting his PHS once more, along with his weapons, and then heading back into the living room and snatching his keys off the counter. He spared himself a few seconds to chuck the milk back into the fridge, and then rushed out the door.

A priority one order was no joke. Whatever was going on, it was big. Priority one meant get your ass to headquarters, right fucking now. The redhead made a hasty run through the pouring rain and all but dove into his car – and still found himself far more damp than he would have preferred – and a few short minutes later was on the freeway bound for Sector 0 and the Shinra Building.

The roads were largely empty… probably owing to both the early hour and the shitty weather. Or at least they were empty until he left the offramp leading into Sector 0. Much to his shock, he found the road ahead blocked off by a large crowd of people, as well as a number of vehicles that had been parked to cordon off the area in front of the Shinra Building’s main entrance. They had effectively cut off his usual route into work.

“… What the fuck?” he murmured, turning down the stereo, which was presently blaring some hard rock by a local band he’d recently come to like. He could hear the crowd shouting angrily above the storm as he drove slowly by them. Before he could figure out what was going on, though, a motorcycle zipped past his car, and turned down a side street. He belatedly recognize the rider as Kai and followed her around the building to the parking deck’s side entrance. He pulled into one of the Turks’ reserved spaces just as she was removing her helmet.

“The fuck’s goin’ on out there?” Reno asked, climbing out of his own vehicle and walking towards the diminutive Turk.

“Ya got me… I got the same phone call you did,” Kai replied. She shrugged out of her sopping wet jacket and hung it over the bike’s handlebars before making her way to the elevator with Reno in tow. “But I’d guess that angry mob outside is only part of the problem. Whatever’s going on it must be bad… I don’t get reevaluated for field clearance until next Monday, and I still got a priority one summons.”

Reno frowned and stepped into the elevator alongside her. She was right. If Tseng and Veld were calling her in for this, it really must be an all-hands-on-deck situation. He suddenly wished he had time to stop on the first floor and poke his head outside to hear what exactly all those people were yelling about. There had to have been at least a few hundred out there.

When the elevator arrived at Turk headquarters, the first thing they heard was Heidegger’s booming voice echoing in the hallway. The pair glanced at one another, concerned. The head of the fucking department was here? Heidegger typically didn’t get off his fat ass and drag it into their domain unless he absolutely had to… or was pissed off at them for whatever reason. And never first thing in the morning.

They hurried towards the source of the commotion and found Liam doing his best impression of a statue near the door and Veld mid-conversation with Heidegger… if by “conversation” one meant one-sided angry shouting.

“The President wants this handled. Immediately!” Heidegger continued, either not noticing or simply choosing to ignore the new arrivals. “And for the love of Hades, keep the goddamned press away from the operation! They’ve caused enough trouble!”

“Yes, sir. We’ll see to it.”

“Hmph!” With that, Heidegger turned on his heel and strode out of the room, casting the redhead an icy glare as he left. Reno resisted the urge to flash him a innocent grin in response. It sounded like the last thing they needed was to annoy the son of a bitch any more than he already was.

“Well… that sounded like it was a pleasant meeting,” Kai said, once she was sure he was out of earshot.

“Don’t even get me started,” Veld said, shaking his head. “It seems we have something of a PR problem on our hands. You may have heard that there’s been significant flooding down in the slums over the last few days. Apparently the local news stations got hold of the story, and as a result, we have a rather large crowd of angry civilians at our front door demanding that Shinra do something to help the people living down there.”

“And there are few things the President hates more than bad publicity…” Kai noted. Before Reno could interject his own thoughts into the mix, the small group was joined by Cissnei and Petra.

“What’s going on?” Cissnei queried, “We saw the protesters on the way in… It sounded like they were angry about the flooding?”

“Indeed,” Veld acknowledged, “And now that you two are here, we’ll go over our current assignment. The Turks have been charged with organizing the evacuation for the hardest hit sectors… Three and Four. We’ll be coordinating with the city police, and additional manpower is being sent from Junon… but it will be some time before they arrive. Kai, you’ll be our point person here at headquarters. Keep the executive board and the Public Relations department up to date, and manage communications for the rest of us. Reno… you and Tseng will be in command in the field. Tseng is already headed down to Sector 3 with Remy, Sato, and Rude. I want you over in Four with Cissnei and Petra. Tseng’s team will work their way towards you and we’ll regroup in Sector 5… which is where Liam and I will be to keep things orderly as the evacuees arrive.”

“Yes, sir,” the redhead replied.

“Bear in mind…” the Turk leader added, “The helicopter can’t fly safely in this storm. It would be especially dangerous under the Plate with the crosswinds as bad as they are. Unless it lets up considerably, we have no air support, so for Shiva’s sake, be careful out there. If you get yourself into trouble, help is going to be a long time coming.”

“You got some idea where in Sector 5 we should be takin’ all these people we’re evacuating?” Reno asked.

“There’s an old church. Do you know it?” Veld replied, and the redhead nodded. “It certainly won’t hold everyone we expect to pull out of the other sectors, but it will make a decent enough starting point. We’ll also make use of the train station and surrounding area. Urban Development won’t like the idea that we’re invading their construction site, but I suspect it’s going to be unavoidable.”

“Tch… Guess it’s a good thing those assholes finally got around to buildin’ it, then,” Reno commented. The train expansion project was nowhere near complete… but he had to grudgingly admit that Shinra Company was finally making some progress. Tracks had been extended into Sectors 5 and 7… they just didn’t have working stations yet. That was due to change some time later this spring or early in the summer.

“Particularly today, as that’s how we’re getting down there,” the Turk leader said. “Transportation has rerouted an engine for us. It will take us down to to construction site… or at least as close as it can get. We’ll cover the remaining distance to the affected sectors on foot. Gear up and move out. It’s going to be a long, wet day.”

---

Tseng slogged through a flooded street, a small group of evacuees trailing behind him while Rude brought up the rear. They’d left Remy and Sato in a more central location, directing those who had already started to leave the area of their own accord in the direction of the shelter that, by now, Veld was setting up in Sector 5. Most people were eager to leave… but there had been a few that, for some Leviathan-forsaken reason had taken some convincing.

He’d never seen the flooding get so bad in Midgar before. But then, they’d had a particularly cold and snowy winter, followed by the very swift onset of warmer temperatures and melting of said snow… followed by days and days of unrelenting rain. All of that water had to go somewhere, and that somewhere was the Slums. Combine that with the largely still-frozen ground and… well, Midgar had been built to handle quite a lot of runoff from the Plate, but this… this was excessive. It was simply more than the drainage systems were designed for and none of it was being absorbed by the soil down below.

The Urban Development department was doing what they could. The channels up on the Plate had been temporarily dammed, to give the Slums time to drain into the surrounding plains… but they could only hold so much. Eventually, they would have to be reopened, or they’d overflow onto the city streets and eventually over the edge of the Plate, which could potentially flood the reactors. With luck, the rain would stop before things got to that point.

They were having to avoid the most direct path to their destination, and that worried him. Even though they were attempting to take the shortest route possible, it was hard to route around some of the more treacherous areas… which was why he breathed a notable sigh of relief as they approached the city’s central pillar. For a while there, he’d been concerned that they would have to detour through a much larger portion of Sector 4 to reach the shelter over in Five. He wasn’t sure the people they were escorting were up to it. All of them were cold and wet and tired. They needed to get out of this mess and into someplace warm and dry.

“Sir!” a voice called out, and Tseng peered ahead, spotting Remy making her way toward him. He halted his group as she approached. “Good news… emergency supplies are arriving in Sector 5 and Reno’s team has entered Sector 4.”

“Good,” the Wutaiian Turk said with a nod. “Rude and I have cleared our first zone and part of the second. How’s your progress?”

“Sato is making a final sweep of zone three, but it’s been slow going and we’ve found some casualties. A lot of the area is completely impassible at this point. It only gets worse out towards the edge of the city. I’m not sure we can reach it from the ground at all. We may need to wait until we can get a helicopter down here. Or a Leviathan-forsaken boat.”

He’d been afraid of that. Much of the outer portion of Sector 3 was low-lying. The flooding would be much worse in that area. It was one of the reasons Veld hadn’t held off on sending them down immediately, rather than waiting for the rest of the team to arrive at headquarters. The hope had been that an earlier intervention might buy them a little more time… but it seemed that their window of opportunity had already passed. Hopefully, residents in those parts of the sector had had the good sense to evacuate, rather than trying to wait things out.

“Call Sato back in. We’ve done all we can here. We’ll take this last group to safety and then regroup with Reno’s team in Sector 4.”

“Yes, sir,” Remy replied, and hurried off to retrieve her fellow Turk.

---

Reno staggered slightly as a rush of water swept across his feet, and darted across the flooded street. It had been a risk, splitting up like this, but there were only three of them for the moment… and they needed to cover as much ground as they could, as quickly as possible. Cissnei and Petra were further back, closer to the city’s main pillar. He’d opted to take the part of the Sector near the edge himself. He knew the area better than either of them, and could navigate it faster.

Even with that benefit, though, it was a nightmare. The water was cold, and though it wasn’t too deep yet – not even coming up to his ankles – it was moving fast. Mostly flowing towards Sector Three, where, he knew, the land dipped into something of a natural basin. Flooding was always bad in Three in the spring. He had, on numerous occasions, had to slog his way through water up to his ankles to reach the bar he’d worked at this time of year. He’d never seen things quite this bad, though. If Four, which was noticeably uphill from Three, was this saturated, Three itself must have been a lake by now.

His path carried him to a small residential block, and he shouldered open the door of the nearest house.

“Hey! Anybody in here?!” he called out. There was no answer, but a part of him wondered if maybe he should check anyway, just to be sure. He was about to do so when a faint sound from around the side of the house caught his attention. He blinked, somewhat surprised, when he recognized it. Someone was crying. The redhead frowned and rounded the ramshackle building.

“Hello?”

The sobbing continued, and he followed it back to its source.

“Ah, fuck…” he breathed. She was huddled on top of a pile of old wooden pallets, trembling from the cold, her hand clutching a stuffed chocobo toy tightly to her chest. The girl couldn’t have been more than five or six years old.

“Tch… what’re ya doin’ here all by yourself?” he asked, moving towards her. The child let out a fearful whimper and scrambled back into the shelter of some damp boxes, out of his reach. “Hey, come on… I’m not gonna hurt ya. But ya can’t stay here… It’s not safe.”

“I want my mommy…” the girl replied, sniffling.

“‘Kay… well… I’ll help ya find her, but ya gotta come out of there,” he replied, and when she still didn’t move, he sighed. He really wasn’t good with kids. He had no experience with them, and they weren’t always the most logical creatures on the Planet. Tell ’em you’re there to help ’em, and they’re just as likely to run away screaming as let you. “I’m Reno. What’s your name?”

“… Kira…” she said hesitantly.

“Okay, Kira… when’s the last time you saw your mom?”

She sniffled again. “She was taking us to grandma’s house. Everyone was leaving in a big group, ’cause of the water. I got lost…”

Reno hoisted himself up onto the pallet and offered her a hand. “Where’s grandma’s house at?”

She eyed the proffered had somewhat suspiciously, but cautiously took it, letting the Turk pull her out of her meager shelter.

“By the big pillar…” she replied. The redhead stripped off his jacket and wrapped it around the shivering child. If she lived near the pillar, Petra had probably already evacuated them… which would mean they were headed to Five by now. He shrugged. A panicked mom looking for a missing kid probably wouldn’t be too hard to locate. He could haul her over, drop her off with Veld, and be back to his sweep in like… thirty minutes.

“Don’t worry… we’ll find her. Bet she’s pretty worried about ya by now…” he said, leading her off towards the safety of Sector 5.

---

Reno eyed the flow of water and gripped Kira’s hand a bit more tightly. It wasn’t deep, but it was moving fast enough, it would trip you up if you weren’t paying attention. Worse… he was pretty sure it was already deeper than it had been when he’d come through here earlier. He mentally groaned. If he had to trudge through miniature rivers the whole way over to Sector 5, it was going to take a lot longer than the thirty minutes he’d initially estimated.

At least he had a better idea of who he was looking for now. He’d managed to get at least a halfway decent description of the mom and Kira’s two brothers as they’d walked.

As he was considering his options, some movement caught he attention.

“Hey! Cissnei!” he called out, spotting his teammate a short distance away, on the opposite side of the impromptu river that was running through the neighborhood. She stopped and waved in acknowledgment. He glanced down at Kira. “Come on, kid… let’s getcha someplace dry, okay?”

She nodded and he picked her, settling her on his shoulders before cautiously making his way across the flow of water. Cissnei hurried over to meet him.

“Everything alright?” she asked, as he set his passenger down on slightly less soggy ground.

“Tch… Yeah. If ya like bein’ waterlogged. Checked a few of the buildings out near the edge of the sector. They were all clear. Found the kid lookin’ for her mom, before I finished, though. Sounds like they got separated tryin’ to get out on their own. You seen a lady with long brown hair ‘n two other kids hangin’ onto her for dear life?”

“I haven’t, but Liam just checked in to say that Petra has a woman looking for a little girl in a group she took over to Five. And that Tseng’s team is on their way to help us out, since Three’s pretty much completely underwater at this point. They’re dropping off the last of their evacuees now.”

Reno sighed in relief. “Thank Ifrit… ’cause I don’t know how just the three of us were s’posed to cover this much ground on our own. Thought Junon was sendin’ us some help…”

“They’re delayed in the mountains. The road’s washed out,” Cissnei replied. The redhead groaned.

“Great…” He shook his head. There really wasn’t anything he could do about it. They’d just have to manage as best they could. “… ‘kay. Do me a favor ‘n drop the rugrat off with Petra, will ya?” He tried to nudge his charge over to Cissnei, but the girl latched on tight to his leg and refused to let go. Reno blinked. “Uh… Hey, come on… You wanna get back to you mom, right?”

Her grip on him tightened and she buried her face against his hip. The redhead sighed. Wonderful.

“Seriously?” he asked, and Cissnei snickered softly.

“I think she wants you to take her. Don’t worry… I can manage on my own for awhile. Tseng’s team will probably be here by the time you get back, anyway.”

“Yeah, okay… Just watch yourself out there. Water’s risin’…” the redhead cautioned her.

“I’ll be fine. Now, get going!”

Reno nodded, and tried to pry the girl off his leg again. When she still wouldn’t budge, he shook his head, and just started walking with her still attached, wondering how it always seemed to be him that ended up in situations like this…

~end chapter 19~