Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 20: When the Best Efforts Fail

“Mommy!”

Reno half-swore the kid fucking teleported,she took off so fast. One second, she was nervously clinging to his hand as they waded through the growing throngs of people crowding into Sector 5… the next, she was twenty feet away, throwing herself into a very relieved-looking woman’s arms.

“Tch… yeah, you’re welcome, kid…” he snickered softly, apparently having been entirely forgotten by the little girl once she was reunited with her family. He shrugged. Whatever. At least she was back where she belonged, now. And, besides… he didn’t have time for a long, tearful goodbye. He still had a job to do. He glanced around, his gaze eventually falling on Veld and Liam near the doors to the church, and hurried over to them to check in.

“Reno…” the Turk leader greeted him, “How close are you to clearing Sector 4?”

“We’ve barely made a dent, sir. There’s just too much area for the three of us to cover.”

Veld nodded. “I had hoped we’d have the reinforcements from Junon here by now. Tseng and his team just left for Four to back you up. If you hurry, you should be able to catch up to them.”

“No need to rush,” a voice countered, and Veld turned to see Tseng approaching from behind. “We ran into Petra and a small group of survivors at the edge of the sector. I volunteered to make sure they made it here safely while the others went on ahead to Four.”

“Great. Since Petra’s accounted for, you ‘n me can go catch up to Cissnei. Had to leave her on her own on the outer edge of the sector while I brought a lost kid in.”

Tseng nodded. “I suggest we go, then.”

As the pair hurried off through the crowd, Reno couldn’t help but wonder what in the Nine Hells all these people were going to do. It could be weeks before Sectors 3 and 4 dried out enough to be inhabitable again… and that was assuming this Ifrit-forsaken rain ever stopped. He knew that Shinra Company was shipping supplies down, setting up tents, handing out food… but there were a lot of refugees. And they were going to be here for awhile. Five couldn’t handle that kind of population indefinitely, no matter how welcoming the local residents might be.

And they were. Welcoming, that is. Sector 5 was one of the nicer parts of the slums. The people were poor, but unlike some other parts of Midgar’s underbelly, they didn’t have the same every-man-for-himself attitude that you encountered in some places. He’d first noticed it about a year ago when he’d been down here with Rude, doing a favor for one of his informants. It had actually caught him a little off-guard, as, back in his own home in Sector 2, people just didn’t help people they didn’t know.

Reno had always been a bit of an exception to that rule back in the day, to be honest… and it had gotten his ass kicked on more than one occasion. Though to be fair, the first time he’d ever met Lira was the night he’d spontaneously come to her rescue… so it wasn’t as if such an attitude didn’t occasionally have its rewards.

He could vaguely remember his mom talking sometimes about how she wished she could take him to live in Sector 5… and occasionally wondered how different things might have been if she’d been able to afford it. Maybe… she’d even still be around, if she had.

“You’re awfully quiet…” Tseng commented as they passed one of the smaller pillars that separated Sector 5 from Sector 4. It was nothing like the Sector’s main pillar, of course. These little ones didn’t actually support much of anything, besides the power relay stations at the top. But they were useful for navigation, if nothing else.

“Just thinkin’,” he said with a shrug.

“You seem to be doing quite a bit of that lately,” his mentor replied. He pulled up short. “Reno… I realize this is hardly the time or the place, but if there’s something bothering you…”

Reno shook his head. “I’m fine…”

Tseng cast him a somewhat dubious glance, but continued on.

“You know… you wouldn’t be the first Turk to turn somewhat introspective after a narrow escape…”

“Tch… Not like I’ve never been in deep shit before…” the redhead scoffed.

“Hmm… True. Though your previous brushes with death have never been quite so… close. You did, in fact, stop breathing for a short while after we retrieved you from the water… and poisoning is certainly nothing to be taken lightly.”

“I told ya… I’m fine,” he reiterated, slightly annoyed. Okay… So maybe he was still working through some shit… Was that so wrong?

Tseng shook his head, and smiled faintly. “Forgive me… What I am attempting to say, is that if you need someone to talk to… I can relate to the experience. And I am most certainly available. Which, incidentally, I do realize is a very hypocritical stance for me to take, given my own tenancy to avoid having such discussions at all costs, but in such matters I would strongly suggest that you not follow my example.”

Reno snickered softly. “You implyin’ that you don’t know everything, boss?”

“Quite the contrary,” Tseng answered with a smirk, “I’m implying that I’ve had enough experience to know perfectly well when I’m making things harder on myself than necessary… even if I don’t always refrain from doing so. Usually out of sheer stubbornness. Said stubbornness, however, is not a trait you should strive to imitate.”

The redhead snorted a quiet laugh.

“I’m gonna remind you that ya said that the next time you insist on me eatin’ lunch in the office so I can finish paperwork…”

“That’s not me being stubborn. That’s me being your commanding officer… One who doesn’t want to end up doing half of it for you again because it will inevitably be turned in late without my help. And stop trying to change the subject.”

“Alright, already…” he said with an exaggerated roll of his eyes, “When we get done with this mess we’ll talk or whatever…” He suddenly grinned teasingly. “Just remember… I was gonna spare you from all the shit that goes though my head. You asked for this…”

---

“Yes, ma’am… I’ll tell him right away,” Liam replied. He tucked his PHS back into his pocket and scurried over the the far end of the old church, where Veld was checking in with the volunteers in charge of keeping track of new arrivals and matching them up with missing family members that had come in separately. No easy task, considering the barely subdued chaos that surrounded them, and particularly since the building was doubling as a makeshift hospital. Thankfully, most of the injuries they’d seen so far had been minor ones. Most people were just wet and cold.

He twisted past two men carrying a third on a stretcher and made his way over to Veld.

“Sir?” he interrupted, and the Turk leader looked up from his conversation.

“Yes? What is it, Liam?”

“Message from Kai, sir. The rain hasn’t let up, and Urban Development says that the reservoirs on the Plate are dangerously full. They’re worried about a failure if we don’t let them open up the floodgates soon. They want to start opening the channels in Three and Four into the drainage system as soon as possible.”

Veld nodded in understanding.

“Notify headquarters that Sector 3 is clear, but we need more time in Sector 4. And then inform the rescue teams of the situation. Get an estimate on how long they’ll need to clear the sector.”

“Yes, sir,” the rookie replied. He left the senior Turk to resume his conversation, and hurried off out of the way to relay the message to Kai.

---

“Hey, Cissnei… Where the hell are you?” Reno asked. His PHS gave a faint burst of static in time with a flash of lightning that lit up their surroundings even under the Plate, and the subsequent rumble of thunder was enough to drown out the other Turk’s reply. “What?”

“I said, I’m over in the residential district. A little east of where we last saw each other. And I could use some help. There are people trapped over here,” the other Turk replied. “There’s an old stream bed that’s filled up with water. It’s moving too fast for them to get across, and they can’t detour around it through Three because it’s just… completely flooded over there.”

“Me ‘n Tseng are headin’ your way. Give us like… ten minutes. We’ll figure somethin’ out.”

Before he even had a chance to hang up his own phone, Tseng’s rang. The Turk lieutenant hurriedly answered it, and Reno frowned slightly.

“Uh… Hey… hang on a sec, will ya, Cissnei… Might have an update for ya…” the redhead said, before turning his attention on his mentor.

“Understood. Reno and I still require another hour or so to assist near the edge of the sector, but the others are safely in the interior. Remy is in command of the other team at the moment. Make sure she gets the message as well.” He ended the call, and tucked his phone back into his pocket. “There’s an issue topside. They need to open up the floodgates and drain some of the water that has been accumulating in the runoff channels. They’re starting with Sector 3, but we need to evacuate towards the interior of the city as quickly as possible. It will hit the outer rim hardest.”

“Crap… Hey Cissnei? Sounds like we’re under a time limit. They’re gonna dump the water they’ve been collectin’ up on the Plate soon,” he relayed to his fellow Turk.

“Okay…” Cissnei replied, “I’ll do what I can to keep everyone calm. Er… I’d appreciate it if you two got here fast, though… There are kids out here, too, and they’re pretty scared.”

“On our way,” the redhead assured her, and snapped his phone shut, “Think we better pick up the pace, boss. She sounds worried.”

Tseng nodded, and the pair set off, once more, across the sector.

---

Rufus glowered down from the window of his office. The protesters were little more than specs from so high up, but there were enough of them, that he could still make out the overall shape of the crowd. He shook his head and moved back over to his desk. What in Ramuh’s name did those fools hope to accomplish by continuing this farce? Shinra Company was already bending to their demands and evacuating the flooded parts of the Slums. He didn’t see the point in going on with this silly little demonstration any longer.

Thunder crashed, loud enough to rattle the windows.

Particularly in this weather. What kind of idiots stood out on the street for hours in the middle of a storm? They didn’t even know any of those people down in the slums. Why did they even care?

He took a seat at his desk and reached for a previously abandoned cup of coffee, grimacing at the first sip. It was stone cold. With an irritated growl, he reached over and pressed the intercom button.

“Curtis… Bring me some fresh coffee,” he said.

“Right away, sir.”

To be fair… the evacuation should have started much sooner than it did. He’d been more than a little surprised to learn, earlier that morning at the emergency board meeting, that things had been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent before his father had finally decided to act. Had the Company stepped in sooner, this all could have been avoided.

If he’d known there was an issue, he might have even made the recommendation himself, in fact. An evacuation was costly, but not as costly as the cleanup of mass casualties was going to be… both financially speaking and in terms of public sentiment. He’d learned over the past year or so that one’s public image, while certainly not everything, was a bit more important than he’d let himself believe. Shelling out the capital to pay for this evacuation as well as remediation of the affected area wasn’t exactly a benefit to Shinra Company’s bottom line… but neither was being blamed for several hundred – or considerably more, depending on how many had been complacent enough to stick around after water started encroaching upon their living spaces – preventable deaths.

The correct choice had seemed perfectly clearto him… but half of the Shiva-be-damned board had to be talked into it before they would approve the measure. Idiots. Some of them were no better than the morons down on the street, standing out in the cold. When his fathereventually retired and he ran the Company, the first thing he’d do was fire the whole lot of them and install some subordinates with more than two brain cells to rub together between them.

He snorted softly in contempt. For Ramuh’s sake… he’d even take Tseng’s pet slum rat over his father’s cronies. The redhead may have been an obnoxious pain in the backside with a truly perverted mind… but even Rufus was forced to concede that he wasn’t by any means stupid… no matter what he might say about the bastard were he ever asked. Heidegger, on the other hand…

That man was a disaster waiting to happen, in Rufus’ opinion. Little self control, an ego the size of the western continent, and a temper to match. He really didn’t know why his father kept him around… unless it was for comic relief, but he rather thought Palmer was more than adequate for that role.

Scarlet was just as bad… though considerably more manipulative than her fatass counterpart, which made her moderately more problematic. She had almost managed to convince his father that intervention in the Slums was unnecessary. Why she even cared, Rufus couldn’t fathom. It certainly wouldn’t have affected her department one way or the other. He suspected she had just wanted the last word for a change. He wasn’t about to let her have it, of course.

The head of weapons research was a particular thorn in his side. Scarlet was a gold-digging, power-hungry whore, and Rufus had never been shy about informing her of as much. He was fairly certain she blamed him for the failure of her “relationship” with the elder Shinra… but the truth was, his father had simply gotten bored of her, as he tended to with all of his mistresses eventually. The bitch had managed to claw an appointment to the executive board out of him before he’d tossed her aside, though, and it annoyed Rufus to no end.

The door to his office opened and his secretary entered with a new cup of coffee, setting it on his desk and dutifully removing the rejected one.

“Will there be anything else, sir?” Curtis queried.

“See if you can get me an update on the status of the evacuation of the Sector 3 and 4 slums. Then you may go to lunch, if you wish,” Rufus replied, dismissively.

“Yes, sir,” he said, and took his leave. The man had been in his employ for over a year now. He’d been somewhat annoyed at having to dismiss his previous secretary at first, but at this point he was grudgingly grateful that the slum rat hadn’t been able to keep it in his pants with the other one. The little idiot had inadvertently ended up doing him a favor. Curtis was a significant improvement over his predecessor… who, honestly, had been little more than eye candy.

While he waited for his update, Rufus turned his attention on the plans for the Wutai mako reactor opening. As part of the treaty with the island nation, Shinra Company had been allowed to build one high in the the mountains… quite far off the beaten trail, in fact. It hadn’t initially been their first choice of location, but after surveying the area, and testing its mako potential, the agreement had actually worked out quite nicely. As it turned out, the distant peak was far richer than the valley Shinra had originally been eyeing. It was more difficult to access, but energy output would ultimately be at least three times higher there.

The facility was slated to come online at the end of the summer, and the board had decided that a celebration was in order. They were inviting several of their largest investors to tour the reactor, as well as Lord Godo. It was to be a small, but important, event for the third quarter. With plenty of press on hand, naturally, to document the company’s continued expansion.

The planning of said event had fallen to him. But, at the moment, there was little planning to be done beyond a basic itinerary and guest list… and he’d finished that weeks ago. Still… rereading his lists was far better than wasting his time and energy on his other “assignment”.

His father wanted him to begin looking for a… partner. Someone to provide him with an heir of his own. And he’d made several decidedly unappealing suggestions of potential incubators for said heir. Rufus, quite frankly, wasn’t sure if he was more amused or disgusted by the idea of his father sizing up candidates for the mother of his future offspring… though considering the senior Shinra’s own tendency towards women who were approximately half his age, disgust was definitely winning out.

Rufus was well acquainted with his father’s attitude toward women. By and large, the man viewed them as disposable and interchangeable… and while the younger Shinra by no means considered himself some sort of great romantic, he didn’t share his father’s views, either. If he were to marry – and frankly, he was still rather undecided on the matter – he would prefer it to be to someone of comparable intellect to himself. Someone who could impress him and hold their own, rather than live in his shadow. Not the ditzy, air-headed bimbos that seemed to catch his father’s fancy more often than not.

He had a sneaking suspicion, however, he was eventually going to have to find someone just to appease his father… at least temporarily. Rufus certainly had no plans to actually marry himself off at the moment just to gift his progenitor with a grandchild. But a love interest… or at least someone to occasionally spend the night with and parade around in front of reporters… would get his old man off his back about the whole idea for awhile.

But he would worry about such matters if and when they became an issue. Right now… he preferred to spend his time thinking about that damn status update he’d requested.

---

“This is gettin’ bad…” Reno commented as he and Tseng waded through knee-high water, “It wasn’t even close to this deep when I was here a little while ago.”

“It’s likely coming from over in Three. I suspect Urban Development has allowed the runoff channels in the sector to empty into the slums and it’s started to back up into the adjoining sectors. Two is probably more than a little soggy by now as well.”

“Heh… A nice long soak might actually help things in Two. Streets were always a fuckin’ mess over there,” he joked. Still… as much as he hated that place, the thought worried him. Two sucked, plain and simple… but even in the shitholiest shithole of Midgar there were good people to be found. Hell, there were probably still people he’d once thought of as friends living over there… even if he had lost touch with them after moving to the Plate.

And… his mom was still there. The thought of her grave being underwater, as well, wasn’t exactly a pleasant one. She’d had things hard enough in life… but she couldn’t even seem to catch a break now that she was gone.

“You’ve clearly never had to clean up after a flood…” Tseng deadpanned. “But I agree. This isn’t a good sign, by any means. If this really is largely from Three, Four is going to be hit hard when the floodgates above us are opened. We’re not going to want to be anywhere near this area when that happens…”

They hurried as well as they could through the flooded streets, finally finding a little bit of dry land at a slightly higher elevation than the rest of the surrounding area. From their new vantage point, Reno didn’t have any trouble spotting Cissnei and a small group of people crowded around the front of a dilapidated cottage at sat on a small natural rise in the ground.

“Fuck. This is gonna fun…” he muttered. Between the two Turks and their objective was what could legitimately be described as a river. Beyond the cottage looked to be more of the same, as water from the next sector over had encroached on the safehaven. Cissnei waved when she caught sight of them.

Tseng was already pulling a pair of ropes from the backpack full of supplies he’d brought along.

“First thing’s first. We’ll need to secure a way across for them… and the younger ones will likely need assistance in crossing. Which of us is getting wet?” he asked, and then amended, “… Wetter.”

“Tch… Your kiddin’, right? That’s the easy job,” Reno replied, smirking. “I’m not haulin’ your heavy ass back in while you’re hangin’ onto a kid.”

“I hadn’t realized I’d put on that much weight over the holidays this year,” Tseng chuckled and held out one of the ropes. The redhead snorted in laughter as he took it and made his way down to the edge of the water. He tied one end to an old fence post, and swung the other in a wide arc over his head, before letting it fly. It landed neatly on the other side, and Cissnei hurried over to grab it.

“Tie that off! I’ll be over to help ya in a minute!” he called out to her.

By then, Tseng had joined him at the water’s edge, and was similarly fastening the second rope to the post. Reno watched him tie a loop into the other end and grinned.

“Been takin’ lessons on fancy knots from Kai or somethin’?” he asked, eyeing the unusual technique

“It’s hardly ‘fancy’. I am more than capable of tying a simple bowline without expert assistance, thank you,” his mentor retorted before slipping the rope around the younger man. He cocked an eyebrow. “Though given that you don’t recognize it, perhaps it’s time you had a refresher course in survival training…”

Reno rolled his eyes. “Fine… but you damn well better tell Little Miss Campout no fuckin’ chocobos this time…” He grabbed onto the rope that was stretched over the water and eased himself in. “Comin’ to ya, Cissnei!”

It really wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it would be. The current was pretty strong, and the water came up to mid thigh, but the rope kept him upright, and he was able to cross at a fairly steady pace. Tseng was right, though. The two kids that were standing over there, looking more than a little terrified, were gonna need some help. When he reached the other side, he did a quick count. Five people, including a girl who looked to be around nine, and a boy who might have been slightly older, plus Cissnei. He grinned at his fellow Turk.

“Ya miss me?”

“Terribly…” she chuckled. “Let’s get the kids over first. The water keeps rising, and it’s only going to be harder for them if we wait.”

“Yep,” Reno agreed, and offered a hand to the girl first. “Come on, kid… Time to go.”

She shook her head emphatically, and scurried behind the boy. The redhead mentally groaned. Not again.

“I’ll go first, okay?” the older child, whom the Turk strongly suspected was her brother, said. Reno had to give the kid credit. He looked like he was about to piss himself as he stepped towards his outstretched hand, but he didn’t hesitate.

“… ‘Kay… hold on tight,” the redhead cautioned as he led him out into the water. Apparently he took the request to heart, because by the time they were up to the kid’s waist, he had a death grip on Reno. They managed the twelve or so feet with little difficulty and he handed the boy off to Tseng.

“One down,” the Turk lieutenant noted.

Reno turned around and repeated the process with the boy’s sister… and then helped the first of the adults out into the water as well. Each crossing was without incident, and by the time he was on his way back to Cissnei again, he was confident that this would be the easiest part of his day thus far. Hell, he was already basically halfway done.

He should have fucking known better.

It started with a deep rumbling, that, for a moment, he assumed was just more thunder. He’d been hearing it all day, and it had largely become nothing more than background noise at this point. By the time he was halfway across, though, he suddenly realized that there was something different about this sound. It wasn’t just the usual crash of thunder followed by a brief rumble as it died away. This sound went on and on.

“Reno!” Cissnei shouted, and the redhead looked up to see her pointing frantically behind him. He turned, and his eyes went wide. A literal wall of water was bearing down on him from the edge of the city.

“Shit! Cissnei, move it!” he shouted, and doubled his pace towards her… only to be unceremoniously yanked off his feet as his tether rope went taut. His head dipped underwater from a moment and he lost his grip on the guide rope. As he surfaced, he realized that he was being pulled backwards, away from the other Turk. “No! Goddammit! Cissnei!”

He tried to swim against the pull of his tether. He had to get to her, or she’d end up swept away by that monster. If he could just reach her… It wouldn’t be a pleasant experience, but he was secure enough. If he could get ahold of her, they could ride it out together and Tseng could pull them in when it was over.

He was dragged, despite his best efforts to stop it, back onto the shore, and wordlessly hoisted to his feet. The next thing he knew, he was back on top of the little sliver of high ground, being shoved roughly behind an old stonework wall for cover as the water barreled through their little crossing. He heard a shrill cry in the distance… and he honestly wasn’t sure if it had been Cissnei or one of the remaining evacuees… but he could hear the sheer terror in it and it sent a chill down his spine.

When the worst of it was over, he staggered to his feet.

The cottage… what was left of it, anyway… was mostly underwater. He stared in horror at the spot that, just moments ago, his fellow Turk had been standing. Waiting for him. His eyes scanned the area, searching for her, but… there was nothing. Just flooded ruins. A hand came to rest on his shoulder and he stiffened. He shrugged it off and spun around to face his mentor, eyes narrowing in fury as realization set in.

“Why they hell did you pull me in?!” he demanded, “I was almost fucking there! I coulda… I could got her!”

Tseng shook his head, sadly. “There wasn’t time, Reno.”

“There was time! I know I coulda made it!” he insisted, as his chest constricted in despair. He stubbornly blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall and shoved Tseng backwards, “How could you just.. just… How fucking could you?!”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it. Saying she was dead would make it real, and he didn’t want it to be real. If he didn’t say it… maybe there was still hope. Maybe she was out there. Somewhere. It was only water, after all. He’d survived the water. A lot more of it than just this little flood.

“Reno… There was nothing we could do. I’m sorry… but there was just no time. If I hadn’t pulled you back, you both would have –”

“Don’t,” he hissed, cutting Tseng off, and brushing past him. He wasn’t gonna let him say it, either.

---

Reinforcements from Junon finally arrived late in the evening, and Veld was only too happy to let them take over. The Turks had ended up doing most of the heavy lifting. It was someone else’s turn now. His team needed to rest.

And to mourn.

It had been a failure at one of the Sector Four floodgates up on the Plate, he’d learned. Once it happened, there was simply no stopping it… and no time to issue a warning to those in the field. Veld sighed heavily and ran a hand along Tseng’s back as the train carried them Plate-ward. He was taking it hard. But then, he always did.

He still didn’t have the entire story… He was waiting until they were back in the office and his Turks were warm and dry and fed before he started in on the debriefings. What little he had gleaned, however, was that there had been nothing Tseng could have done… and even though the younger man had assured his mentor that he knew that, he was clearly in pain. Reno, too, seemed to be at a loss for words. He hadn’t said much when the pair had returned… but he was quite visibly angry. Veld was absolutely certain of that much.

He couldn’t blame the young man. Losing a Turk was never easy. Watching it happen… well, that could bring even an older, more seasoned Turk to his knees. Reno wasn’t yet twenty and had only just recently marked his third year as a Turk. He simply hadn’t seen enough to be able to compartmentalize the grief the way most of them had learned to do by now. A short leave – for them both – might not be a terrible idea… though Veld knew Tseng well enough to expect him to argue against it, for himself at least. He preferred to work. Hell, the redhead might just turn him down, as well. He seemed to have picked up a few of Tseng’s less endearing habits over the years… and his stubbornness.

As for the rest of the team… most of them seemed to be in a minor state of shock, after hearing the news about Cissnei. The rookies, in particular, were noticeably subdued at the moment. Tseng would have his work cut out for him, ensuring they were taken care of… though Veld was more than willing to step in and help if needed. He was hesitant to encroach without specifically being asked, however. The rookies were one of Tseng’s primary responsibilities now. It was a large part of preparing him to take over the team itself in the future, and he needed to learn how put his own needs aside at times in order to see to theirs, while simultaneously balancing it with not neglecting himself. It… wasn’t always as easy as it sounded.

He’d overheard the trio shortly before they’d left for the Plate, wondering if perhaps Cissnei might still be alive… just trapped somewhere in the flooded sector and unable to contact them. It was a tempting fantasy, and maybe there was a very slim possibility of it… and Veld had found it far too cruel to attempt to dissuade them of the idea just yet. The troops from Junon were, of course, searching for survivors, and he was the first to admit that more miraculous things had happened… but based on Tseng’s brief description of what had transpired… he wasn’t holding out much hope.

Reno had wanted to stay and assist in the search. So had Rude. Veld had vetoed the idea immediately. They were both exhausted, and he’d already lost one Turk today. He wasn’t about to put two more needlessly at risk. They would all return to the Slums tomorrow, but right now, they were spent, and no good to anyone.

The pair hadn’t been pleased when he’d issued that decree… but they’d grudgingly accepted it and followed orders to board the train.

They arrived at the Sector 5 station and switched trains, making their way back to Sector 0 and headquarters. By then, it was closing in on nine o’clock, and no one looked like they were in the mood for any additional traveling. He made a brief call to his wife to let her know that he wouldn’t be home tonight and followed his Turks upstairs. Most of them headed straight for the sleeping quarters, though a few made a detour to the cafeteria to see what was left in the kitchen.

Reno, in particular, had looked a little unsteady as Rude had coaxed him off of the elevator at the thirty-fifth floor, and Veld belatedly realized that he likely hadn’t eaten much – if anything – since early that morning. He shook his head. Yes… the redhead really was just as stubborn as his mentor sometimes. He had fully intended to remain behind and search… and probably wouldn’t have stopped for food at any point had Veld been willing to allow it. Tseng, too, had a history of working until he quite literally dropped. He would have to speak with his protege about that. One workaholic on the team was plenty.

His Turks seen to, Veld sighed and sat down at his desk, resting his head in his hands for a moment. He knew he should go to bed, himself, as well. They had another long day ahead of them tomorrow.

“Sir?” a voice queried from across the office, and he looked up to find Tseng hovering in the doorway.

“Get some sleep, for Titan’s sake, Tseng,” he chastised his protege.

“I will. I’m waiting for for the rookies to return from dinner. And for Reno to come upstairs. I want to make sure he’s… as alright as he can be, under the circumstances. He and Cissnei were good friends. It’s… going to be hard for him to accept, I think.” The Wutaiian Turk sighed heavily. “And he’s quite angry with me, at the moment, as well.”

The Turk leader’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Which, I assume, is what brought you to my office.”

Tseng gave a somewhat mirthless snort of laughter and slipped into the room, closing the door behind him.

“I’m sorry, Veld. I realize that you’re just as tired as I am, at this point, but…”

“But I’m your mentor. And you need some advice,” Veld finished for him, with a faint smile. “I hadn’t planned on going to bed just yet, anyway. What’s he so angry about? Besides the obvious…”

The younger Turk dropped into one of the chairs in front of Veld’s desk.

“I stopped him from going after Cissnei,” he replied, and shook his head. “He almost certainly would have been killed, as well! But, he insists that he could have saved her. Frankly, I don’t know if he truly believes that or if it’s just wishful thinking fueled by grief, but… he’s furious that I prevented him from making the attempt. He wouldn’t even speak to me for most of the afternoon unless it was strictly necessary.”

“Ah…” was all Veld said in reply. That explained why his protege was lingering in the halls instead of preparing to get some rest once his duties were seen to, even though he looked like he might drop at any second. The Turk leader very vividly remembered a similar incident that was undoubtedly at the forefront of Tseng’s mind at the moment… After all, it was only in the last couple of years that he and Kai had gone from merely being civil to one another to truly reconciling.

“I know that the situation isn’t quite the same,” Tseng replied, seeing the understanding on his mentor’s face.

“But it’s similar enough… and besides which, that protege of yours has a history of going off half-cocked when he’s upset,” Veld said, quickly catching on.

“Perhaps not as much as when he was younger. But yes, I am somewhat concerned about what he might do tomorrow when we return to the Slums.” He dropped his gaze, and added, “And… that he may not forgive me for this.”

“I’ll pair him with Rude tomorrow. He’s always been fairly competent when it comes to keeping that little troublemaker of yours out of trouble. At least on duty,” the older Turk declared. “Beyond that, however… I think you simply need to give him time. It’s too fresh right now. Too painful. He’s devastated and he’s grieving. We all are. But we’re family. He’ll forgive you.”

“… I hope you’re right, sir.”

“I’m always right,” Veld shot back, drawing a faint smile from younger man. “You should know that by now. Now go and get some sleep. I’ll see to the rookies, and make sure your protege is tucked in and read his bedtime story for you.”

Tseng glared at him. “You know… he really does hate it when people make comments like that about him. He was the youngest of us for so long… and still looks so young even compared to our new recruits… I think he’s well past sick of it. Kai still calls him baby Turkling from time to time, and it drives him mad. Reno is not a child and he does not deserve to be so casually referred to as one. It’s demeaning.”

“You… are absolutely right. I apologize,” Veld replied, surprised at the unexpected outburst. Tseng’s temper was showing itself… though he supposed it was understandable, given how high emotions were running at the moment. And he couldn’t really say that his second in command wasn’t entirely within his rights to call him out on it… even if he had only been trying to lighten the mood a bit. “I think we both need some rest. Go on. I’ll see to Reno, and anyone else who’s still up before I turn in myself.”

“… Yes, sir. Goodnight.” Tseng stood and headed for the door.

“Goodnight. And Tseng?” he called after him. His protege turned, looking back at him. “Try not worry too much. Reno won’t give you up any more than you would him. No matter how angry he may be right now.”

“Thank you…” Tseng replied, looking somewhat relieved, in spite of his concerns. Veld shook his head once he was gone, musing silently on the conversation. No matter how old they got, sometimes one’s rookie simply needed the reassurance of their mentor.

~end chapter 20~