Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 24: Icicle Inn

Reno was up uncharacteristically early on Saturday morning. The sun wasn’t even awake yet. Hell, he’d barely slept… though it certainly didn’t feel like it. He hadn’t even had breakfast – or coffee – yet, but he was already wide awake and ready to go. His bag, stuffed with winter clothing, was sitting next to the door to his apartment, just waiting to be grabbed on the way out. All he was missing was his traveling companion.

The plan was to leave for Kalm early on Saturday, hop a ferry to the Northern Continent, get checked into their hotel room by nine A.M., eat an early lunch, and be out on the slopes by eleven. And that was just the start of his four day birthday bonanza, culminating with cake on Monday night… his actual birthday… a few more runs on the slopes on Tuesday morning, and finally, a nice, leisurely trip home that evening… with a quick stop in Kalm, if they had time, for dinner.

It wasn’t the Gold Saucer… but it was gonna be fun!

A knock on his door pulled the redhead from his fantasizing about the trip, and he grinned, hurrying over to let Rude in. He opened the door, only to find no one there. Confused, he poked his head out into the hall… and was immediately ambushed from the right as strong arms wrestled him into a headlock.

“Hey! Let go!” the redhead yelled, and he distinctly heard his friend snickering as he was calmly walked backwards into his apartment. Rude kicked the door shut with his foot before finally releasing the smaller Turk. Reno glared at him as he righted himself. “Seriously, man?”

“Just wanted to make sure you were awake,” Rude replied.

“Asshole,” the redhead muttered rolling his eyes.

“You ready to go?”

Reno’s vaguely annoyed expression was quickly replaced with a wide grin.

“Rude, I’ve been ready for days,” he laughed. Rude snorted softly in amusement.

“Then let’s hit the road, birthday boy,” he snickered, “It’s a long trip when you don’t conveniently have a helicopter to drop you off.”

“Tch… can’t believe the Boss wouldn’t just lend it to me for the weekend,” he joked, grabbing his bag and ushering his friend out the door. He locked it behind him and they headed for the elevator.

“Guess even Tseng’s fondness for you has its limits…” Rude chuckled, teasingly.

---

Rude glanced over at his friend and laughed quietly to himself. Excited or not, Reno was not a morning person.

They’d made it to Kalm without issue… save, perhaps the fact that it was still so Shiva-forsaken early that none of the local shops were open yet. No shops meant no coffee for the redhead. Once they’d boarded the ferry to Icicle Inn, he’d curled up on one of the seats and fallen asleep again within fifteen minutes of them leaving the dock.

Rude didn’t mind. He was perfectly capable of entertaining himself for awhile. In fact, he wasn’t above getting a little more shuteye, himself… assuming he could get comfortable. Reno could sleep just about anywhere, in just about any position imaginable. The older Turk, unfortunately, didn’t share that skill.

To be honest… he really could use a little more sleep. He’d been up late. His efforts to locate information on Reno’s mother had been largely fruitless, but he’d kept trying until there simply wasn’t any time left. As much as he hated to say it, Reno had been right. Aria Donovan was a virtual unknown. He’d found very little that even referenced her in the city’s archives. The culmination of his efforts had been an old employment contract for a nightclub in Sector 1 that had gone out of business almost twenty-five years ago, before Reno was even born. The owner of the club had been dead almost as long… apparently a suicide shortly after his business failed. Before that… nothing. After that… more nothing. How she’d gone from working a nightclub on the Plate to selling herself in the Slums, Rude had no idea, and the trail had long since gone cold.

He sighed softly. He really had hoped to find a photo. That was the only thing the redhead had asked for, and he’d wanted so badly to be able to give it to him. But like Reno had said… it had been a longshot from the very beginning. That wasn’t to say he was giving up, of course. There had been other employee contracts in the file where he’d found Aria’s. He hadn’t had time to track any of them down… but several were still alive, at least. When they returned from this trip, he was going to reach out and see if anyone remembered her.

But that still left him short a present for Reno. Seemed he was going to be treating him to that pricey Ultima Ale, after all.

Rude reached out for the younger Turk, only to stop himself from actually touching him at the last moment. If he did, he would almost certainly wake him up, and he wanted the redhead well-rested and ready to enjoy their vacation when they reached their destination. He smiled slightly as he pulled his hand back and shook his head.

He’d wanted a little brother of his own for as long as he could remember. Growing up an only child had been an somewhat lonely existence… particularly given his innately shy nature. He’d never been very adept at making friends. As a child, he had simply wanted someone who liked him for who he was. Not who they wanted him to be. Maybe even someone who looked up to him a little. Reno was all of that, and more. It had taken him until adulthood to do it, but Rude had finally found the little brother he’d longed for when he was younger.

Reno stirred slightly in his sleep as a large wave rocked the ferry. He yawned, and blearily opened his eyes.

“… We there yet?” he asked, and Rude snorted softly.

“No… You’ve only been out for like… twenty minutes,” he chuckled. The redhead stretched and sat up, scrubbing his face with the palms of his hands.

“Tch… How’s a guy s’posed to get any sleep with this stupid boat rockin’ back ‘n forth the whole trip,” he groused. Rude laughed and reached over, ruffling his hair.

“Good thing Kai’s not here… or she’d be teasing the baby Turkling about needing his nap.”

Reno groaned and rolled his eyes.

“You start channelin’ her, and I’m throwin’ you overboard, pal…” he replied, “You can swim the rest of the way to Icicle Inn.”

Rude snickered but obligingly kept his mouth shut.

---

Tseng scanned through the morning’s headlines as he waited for his tea to steep. Normally, Saturday would find him in bed until closer to eight o’clock… but he was feeling unusually energetic today. He’d taken a quick jog around the park behind his apartment building before the sun had risen, and was now debating on breakfast. Or, perhaps more accurately, which of his preferred establishments he would seek to procure breakfast from, as he was not the least bit in the mood to partake of his own culinary inexpertise today.

It was, therefore, something of an annoyance when his PHS rang rather insistently just as he’d made his decision as to where to go for a bite to eat. The Turk lieutenant frowned slightly as he saw the name on the caller ID.

“Yes, sir?” he answered.

“I’m sorry to bother you so early, especially on the weekend,” Veld’s voice replied, “But there’s… something I’d like you to see. Can you meet me at the Sector 1 reactor in ten minutes?”

Tseng blinked in surprise. The reactor? That was… unusual.

“Yes, sir, I’m on my way.”

Tseng ended the call and hurriedly switched from his normal off-duty attire to his uniform. He was out the door and on the road in under five minutes.

---

“Here,” Rude said, passing a styrofoam cup to his friend. Reno’s eyes widened.

“Where the hell’d ya find coffee?!” he asked, immediately seizing the proffered beverage, and drinking deeply. Rude chuckled.

“There’s a galley below deck. You wanna get something to eat, too? Menu’s kind of sparse, but they do have donuts…”

The redhead grinned and got to his feet. “Lead the way!”

Rude laughed and guided him to a narrow staircase leading to the lower level of the ship. Soon the pair were seated at a small table, enjoying coffee and donuts, and planning their first day on the slopes.

“So’s snowboardin’ hard?” Reno asked between bites. “Like… how much practice is this gonna take before I don’t look like a complete idiot out there?”

“Been awhile since I had to learn. First time I was up here, I was four,” he replied, with a shrug. “I don’t remember the basics being too hard to pick up, though.”

Reno raised an eyebrow. “When’s the last time you went to Icicle Inn, anyway? Other than assignments, I mean…”

“Took a trip right before I left for Midgar to join the recruitment program… so around four… four and a half years? It was something my family used to do every year when I was a kid. Before… Mom’s accident. It was kind of my way of saying goodbye to my old life, I guess…”

“… Oh,” Reno replied, somewhat subdued all of a sudden. Rude shook his head.

“You okay?”

“Yeah… Just…” He trailed off for a moment and then sighed. “Mom ‘n me never really had like… traditions ‘n shit. Guess she just wasn’t around long enough.”

“… You really are thinking about her a lot lately, aren’t you?”

Reno stuffed the remainder of a donut into his mouth and chased it with a large swig of coffee.

“I don’t know why… but… yeah. I am. I can’t help it, for some reason. Tch… ya know, in the grand scheme of things, I barely even knew her… but…” He hesitated for a moment, looking down at his now empty plate. “But… I can’t help wishin’ she was here sometimes. And then I feel kinda shitty for wishin’ for that, ’cause I got you, ‘n Tseng, ‘n Lira, ‘n everybody else… and that should be enough. Right?”

Rude cast him an understanding smile.

“Nothing wrong with wanting your mom. I miss mine, too. Some days more than others.”

“… Don’t say anything to Tseng, okay? … ’cause he’d have me signed up to see the company shrink in no time flat, but… back when I got poisoned? There was a little while where they didn’t know for sure if they were gonna get me the antidote in time. And… I kinda got to thinkin’… what would I do if that shit completely fucked me up? Like… to the point that I was dyin’, but… ya know… it was takin’ it’s sweet time to off me,” the redhead said, not quite willing to meet his friend’s gaze. “I love my mom… but… to be honest, I was always a little pissed at her, too, for up ‘n leavin’ me the way she did. But… it made me think. Maybe there are times when it’s… not, ya know… right or fair… but… it’s understandable. I mean… how bad was it for her that killin’ herselfseemed like a better alternative than stayin’ with me? That even havin’ me wasn’t enough to make her wanna go on livin’…”

He looked up at him, blinking back tears.

“Or… that havin’ me just made things worse for her…”

Rude stood up and circled around the table, taking the seat next to his friend, and wrapped an arm around him. The redhead sighed and leaned into him.

“Don’t think like that,” he said, “She could have taken the easy way out and not had you at all. She could’ve left you on a doorstep somewhere, and forgotten about you… but she didn’t. She held on for five years, and she took care of you. She protected you. She did what she could to make you feel safe and happy and loved. You remember her doing it. I think you’re what kept her alive… not what drove her to end her life.”

“… I never actually thought about it like that,” Reno replied. He sniffled faintly and sat up, wiping a hand across his eyes, and looking embarrassed by his sudden display.

“You gonna be alright?” Rude asked, and the redhead nodded.

“I think… Tseng mighta been right. I think maybe the whole legit almost dyin’ thing might be messin’ with me more than I thought it was,” he admitted. “It’s like… ever since it happened, I just can’t get away from it. And then after…”

“… after what happened to Cissnei,” Rude supplied, when he trailed off again.

“It’s like death is constantly in the back of my mind lately. Followin’ me around like a goddamn stalker. And sometimes it’s all I can think about ‘n that scares the fuck outta me. I don’t wanna die. And I don’t want the people I care about to die. But…”

“But we’re Turks. It happens…” Rude finished for him.

“I mean… I always knew that. And it’s not like we’ve never lost Turks before. Hell, I’ve been in situations where I coulda been killed so many times, I oughta be totally numb to it by now. But… it’s just… somehow more real after what happened to me in Junon, ya know? And I can’t seem to shake it.”

Rude sighed and glanced out one of the small windows that sat just above the water line. The seas were getting a little rougher… probably because they were nearing their destination and the winds were picking up as they rushed down from the glacier towards the ocean.

“… I know what you mean. I felt the same way for awhile after Tres died. Death just… seemed to be everywhere.”

Reno looked up at him, blinking in surprise.

“Why didn’t you ever say somethin’ to me?” he asked.

“You were pretty upset, yourself, with Tseng being hurt, and then having to take out Rodney on your own. And Cissnei needed us both. I… had to take care of my family. I couldn’t risk losing any more of them.”

The redhead looked away guiltily. “Ya shoulda said somethin’…”

Rude shook his head. “I was just doing my job.”

“Tch… Don’t remember anything ’bout bein’ a self-sacrificin’ idiot in the Turk job description…”

The older Turk snickered softly. “I meant my other job. It’s just what big brothers do,” he said, smiling, “It… gets better. Trust me.”

---

“Tseng.”

The Wutaiian Turk turned at the sound of his own name, spotting his mentor as he emerged from a small alley that ran alongside the Number 1 mako reactor. He quickly altered course, away from the facility’s main entrance and joined him.

“What’s going on, sir?” he asked, noting the Turk leader’s grim expression.

“This way,” Veld replied, motioning him towards the alley. “I’m sorry for the lack of details when I called… but I didn’t want to risk being overheard and having information get out before we knew for certain what’s going on.”

Tseng wordlessly followed his mentor into the somewhat claustrophobic space. It didn’t take him long to realized what the problem was. The younger Turk’s frown deepened.

“Has Director Faine been notified?” he asked, kneeling down beside the body, and Veld gave a somewhat mirthless laugh.

“Yes… and I suspect you’ve only managed to beat her here by minutes. She’s not happy. Understandably, of course, given the circumstances… but you know what she’s like when she’s not happy. I’m not exactly looking forward to her arrival.”

“Who is she?”

“SOLDIER Second Class Faith Sunder,” Veld said. “Recently promoted, and apparently a strong early contender for advancement to First Class. Which is only the first thing that raised alarm bells when I spoke to Faine. She’s a veritable rising star in SOLDIER. The odds of her falling to a random attacker on the street seem… slim. Something tells me this was not the result of your everyday mugging or assault.”

The three perfect bullet holes in the young woman’s forehead and temple didn’t exactly bolster that thought, Tseng noted to himself. No matter how well trained, even members of SOLDIER weren’t bulletproof. If she’d been caught by surprise…

“It’s not just her training, though,” Veld added, seeing his protege’s skepticism. He turned away from the body. “Over here.”

Tseng joined him… and suddenly had no choice but to agree with the older Turk’s assessment. There were three shell casings on the ground. Likely from the three bullets that now resided in the SOLDIER’s skull. But they certainly hadn’t been left there on accident or as an oversight. They stood on-end, in a perfect line, evenly spaced… two right-side up, the third upside-down. A very deliberate arrangement.

“I’m not familiar with this particular calling card… assuming that’s what this is,” Tseng said.

“Nor am I. And that’s what worries me,” Veld agreed, “We don’t know who we’re dealing with. A lone assassin? A terrorist cell? Something else entirely? Whoever they are, they executed a member of SOLDIER without being seen, and, judging by the state of the body, without their victim being discovered forthe better part of twenty-four hours. More than enough time for them to escape undetected… or regroup for their next assault.”

Tseng reached for one of the shells and picked it up, careful not to disturb its friends.

“Wutaiian maker’s mark. A rather high-end one,” he noted, and Veld nodded solemnly, “Not exactly common in Midgar.”

“And not exactly what one wants to see popping up in Midgar now that we’ve brokered a peace with Wutai,” Veld added as Tseng was placing the evidence back where he’d found it.

“I can see why you didn’t want to risk anyone overhearing the details…” the Turk lieutenant replied. This… wasn’t good. Of course, it was more than possible that the Wutai-made bullets were nothing more than a personal preference for the killer or killers, but public sentiment towards his home country was still somewhat… icy. Regardless of the perpetrator’s identity, if something like this got out before they knew what was going on, it wasn’t inconceivable that tensions in the city might rise again.

And tensions aside… someone had murdered a member of SOLDIER, for Leviathan’s sake. That… just didn’t happen.

“Was there any indication that whoever did this had another target in mind,” Tseng asked, “The reactor itself, perhaps? A SOLDIER Second Class would have security clearance. They may have been after her ID.”

Veld shook his head. “Not as far as I’ve been able to determine. The body was found by reactor security… but they were doing a normal external sweep at the time. Not investigating anything in particular. There’s no recorded entry into the facility by anyone other than authorized reactor personnel, and her ID card was still on her person when I arrived. I had security run a check, just in case. There’s no record of her ID having been used enter the reactor, nor any evidence of tampering in the access logs themselves.”

“What was she doing here? Do we know?”

“Director Faine informed me that she was simply out on a standard training exercise. A routine city patrol. When she didn’t report in at the end of her shift yesterday as expected, her supervisor notified the Director of her absence. They were actively looking for her, but her last known position was on the other side of the city quite early in the day. They hadn’t searched this sector yet.”

“I see…” Tseng breathed. This had to have been scrupulously planned. They’d chosen a target that, by the very nature of her assignment, would be on her own, and not in minute to minute contact with her division. They’d waited until she was in an isolated area. They had likely surprised her, if not outright ambushed her… and then they had left their own little signature on the kill, in the form of the three bullet casings, and disappeared without a trace. “Should I call in the rest of the team?”

“No,” Veld replied, shaking his head, “Not yet. This is SOLDIER’s jurisdiction, and we haven’t officially been asked to assist. I merely got the call before they did. Our relationship with Director Faine is strained enough, I think. We’ll let her handle it for now… unless our help is requested. But…”

“But you’d like me to… do a little research and see what I can find out about this calling card of theirs. Just in case it eventually becomes our problem,” Tseng said, taking the hint.

“I think it wise,” Veld nodded. “In the mean time, I’ll see if I can drag any additional information out of Faine when she gets here.”

“So much for a quiet, relaxing weekend,” Tseng sighed softly, “I think Reno and Rude had the right idea. They left town before anything could interrupt their plans…”

The Turk leader smirked slightly, and clapped his protege on the back. “Maybe the nexttime I offer you an extra day or two off, as well, you’ll actually takeme up on it for a change.”

---

Reno grinned at the sight of lightly falling snowflakes as he and Rude made their way into town aboard a chocobo-drawn sleigh. It hadn’t been a long ride up from where the ferry had landed, and the short trip had actually been quite pleasant… in spite of the mode of transportation. At least he didn’t have to actually ride one of the damned things. He just had to sit in the sleigh while their driver spurred the huge bird onward.

“Fuck, man…” he breathed, “This place is really different when ya can actually see it.”

Rude snorted in laughter. “Wait until you see the ski runs.”

In moments, they were pulling up in front of the large inn for which the town was named. Rude ushered him inside, and it wasn’t long before they had keys to their room and were headed upstairs. Reno grinned as he tossed his bag onto a chair and flopped back onto one of the beds. The room was cozy and warm, with tall windows that looked out over the glacier. Rough-hewn wood paneling lined the walls, and a little table sat in the far corner with a small welcoming basket of treats waiting for them.

The redhead sat up slightly, watching Rude as he started unpacking a few of his things into the wardrobe against the back wall.

“Hey… Thanks for comin’ with me, pal,” he said, stretching a little, “And… ya know… for talkin’ things out with me on the trip up here. I… do kinda feel better after gettin’ some of that offa my chest.”

“Hmph… couldn’t let you ruin your own birthday, now could I?” Rude snickered. Reno laughed and climbed off the bed.

“So… the plan was lunch ‘n then the slopes, right? What do they got to eat around here?”

“Bar’s down in the basement,” Rude replied, “They’ve got a pretty good menu. There’s a little place out in the town proper, too.” He glanced at his watch. “Might be kinda early, though. Last time I was here, they didn’t open until lunch time. It’s only not even eleven yet.”

“To the bar!” Reno grinned, and bounded towards the door. Rude tucked a few more things into the wardrobe and followed.

“Take it easy on the booze. We just got here. I don’t wanna have to haul your drunk ass out of a crevasse on the first day…” he teased.

---

“Umm… Wow,” Reno breathed, staring down the surprisingly sharp incline, “That’s a really big hill…”

Rude snickered loudly and slid closer to him, his skis cutting through the powdery snow at the top of the run. Lunch had been quick. His friend had been almost too excited to eat. Before he knew it, the redhead had been dragging him – along with their rented equipment – back out into the frosty early afternoon air of the Great Glacier.

“You’re not chickening out, are you?” Rude goaded him, laughing. Reno glared at him in response, and leaned down to tighten the bindings on his snowboard again.

“Hell no, I’m not chickening out!” he replied, indignantly, “I’m just… deciding what the best way to do this is gonna be…”

They’d already made a few runs on the bunny hills, and it was no surprise to Rude that Reno had gotten the hang of it almost immediately. The younger man’s natural agility always seemed to serve him well in such endeavors. After about half an hour of practice, he’d very quickly decided that he was ready for the real thing.

And then he’d seen what the real thing entailed.

“… You’re… gonna be right behind me… Right, pal?”

“Not if you don’t actually go…” he chuckled. To be completely fair, the resort’s main ski run was pretty intimidating… especially for someone who’d never done it before. It was certainly a whole lot bigger than the drainage canals they went sledding in back home in Midgar. “Come on… I once watched you climb out on the skids of helicopter mid-flight so you could commandeer it back from the guy who stole it. This should be a walk in the park for you.”

“Yeah, well… I didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter that time. I either did it, or I got captured and/or shot by angry Wutaiian mercenaries once we landed…” Reno replied.

“Would it help if I pulled a gun on you?” Rude jokingly offered.

The redhead rolled his eyes and then proceeded to flip him off… though Rude distinctly saw a slight grin creep over his face.

“Okay…” he said, nervously, turning back to the ski run. “On three…”

“Three,” Rude said, and pushed forward, launching himself down the incline first.

“Hey! Wait for me!” he heard Reno call after him. He risked a glance back, and saw the redhead take the downward plunge as well, a look of horror suddenly crossing his face as he quickly picked up speed on his snowboard. He sailed past the older Turk a few moments later, screaming, “WHY THE HELL DID I THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!”

Rude couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that, as he watched his friend flying down the slope. He was actually doing pretty well – aside from being scared out of his mind, of course – and taking the twists and turns of the trail like a pro.

Though he was starting to get a little farther ahead than Rude was comfortable with…

Appearances aside, Reno was still a beginner. He didn’t want to risk the younger Turk to getting into some unexpected trouble where he couldn’t see him, and then missing him on the way down. Rude turned his skis to take a more direct path down the glacier, hoping to close the distance between them… but it turned out to be too little, too late. A curve took Reno out of his line of sight, and by the time Rude had rounded it himself, he’d vanished from view entirely.

Worse, the trail split a short ways beyond the curve, and he had no idea which way the redhead had gone.

He knew, however, that the path on the left was the shorter of the two. If Reno had gone the long way, he might have a chance at catching up when they merged back together at the bottom of the run… though if he needed help in the interim, Rude would have no option but to go all the way down, return to the top, and make the run a second time in order to reach him.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t need rescuing.

That thought in mind, Rude turned down the shorter route, keeping a wary eye out for the missing redhead. He shot past snow-covered trees, the icy wind surprisingly refreshing. By the time he reached the point where the dual trails recombined into one, he’d still seen no sign of Reno. Until, that is, a blur sailed past him for the second time, with a shriek that seemed equal parts unrestrained excitement and abject terror. And for a moment, Rude was relieved.

It was a very short-lived moment of relief.

Reno’s snowboard hit a mogul at top speed, and sent him airborne. He landed hard a short distance beyond, wobbling wildly as he attempted to regain control… which, to his credit, he did manage to do. Unfortunately, by then, he was on a direct course for a massive snowdrift near the bottom of the run. He didn’t have time to maneuver out of the way, and Rude cringed as the redhead slammed bodily into the mound of snow.

A few excruciatingly long seconds later, Rude reached the bottom, as well, praying he wasn’t hurt. For a moment, he was worried that he was, because his friend didn’t seem to be moving. Rude released the bindings on his skis and hurried over to him.

“Reno?!”

The redhead groaned, and, almost comically, peeled himself out of the Reno-shaped indentation in the drift, landing on his ass in the snow and blinking owlishly up at the other Turk.

“… You alright?” Rude asked, concerned.

A wide grin spread over Reno’s face.

“Let’s go again!” he laughed.

Rude rolled his eyes and brushed some of the snow out of his friends hair before helping him up, snickering. He should have known.

~end chapter 24~