Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 79: A Second in Training

Reno huffed slightly in vague irritation as he stepped into what would be his new office the following day. Apparently most of the items that had occupied the space when it belonged to Shay had been been repurposed at some point. He was going to have to hunt down a few things.

Tres’ office, meanwhile, had remained largely as it had been the last time the redhead had ventured inside – minus the late Turk’s personal possessions. Rude had already been happily settling in when he’d left him to see to moving his own stuff.

He set down the box of office supplies down in the corner where the desk should have been and shook his head. There wasn’t even a Shiva-forsaken chair in here. Of course, he could always drag over the furniture form his old office, but that wasn’t the point. This was almost as depressing as it had been when he’d moved into his apartment… the second one, where he hadn’t even had a bed for the first couple of weeks thanks to an inevitable war threatening on the horizon.

“Great…” he sighed, “This is gonna take all day.”

He heard a quiet laugh behind him and turned to find his mentor standing in the doorway.

“Relax. I’ve already requisitioned appropriate décor for you new office,” Tseng said, leaning on a single crutch, “Maintenance will be delivering it later this morning.”

Reno blinked in surprise.

“That was quick…” he replied, “I just told you we were doin’ this half an hour ago. Since when does the requisition office get shit done same day?”

Tseng smiled and shook his head.

“Truthfully… I made the request last week before I’d even suggested it to you,” he stated, “Even if you opted not to take me up on the offer right away… eventually, you would have needed it. I thought I’d have it ready for you when you did.”

Reno rolled his eyes and snickered. “Ya just always gotta be right, don’t you…?” he teased, “How’s the ankle?”

“Considerably better after a night of rest. I don’t think a trip downstairs will be necessary after all… which is likely very fortunate for me, as I’m fairly certain that Justinia is still a bit angry with me,” the Turk lieutenant replied, “I… fear an apology and a great deal of groveling may be in order before I’m back on good terms with her.”

“Heh… and that’swhy I always try not to piss off the Doc,” Reno said, grinning. Tseng smirked at him.

“With only slim to moderate success at times…” he teased, “You, however, have the benefit of being her favorite patient. She doesn’t stay angry with you.” He sighed and shook his head. “In any case… I happened to be speaking with Viridia last night…”

The redhead’s grin widened.

“Quiet,” Tseng preemptively shushed him, “We were discussing the possibility of allowing Ryu, and any other rookie who may be interested, to train with the Junon Materia Corps twice a week. She’s quite amenable to the idea… with the caveat that I owe her a favor in return.”

“Sweet!” Reno replied, “Bet Ryu’s gonna be glad to hear that…”

“Agreed,” Tseng nodded, “I’d like you to inform them at your earliest convenience, and find out if anyone else intends to join him. I took the liberty of taking a look at your schedule for this week already… I believe we can fit in the first session tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yeah… that should work,” the younger Turk nodded. Wednesday was kind of a recovery day anyway. You just couldn’t do the sort of training required of a Turk rookie without having an easy day every once in awhile.

“Which brings me to my next question,” Tseng continued, “Would you like to accompany them?”

Reno blinked in surprise at the offer. He’d just assumed they’d be sending them off on their own for awhile. Or that Tseng might want to go, since it would involve paying his girlfriend a visit.

“You did mention that you wanted to learn a bit more about materia training yourself, as I recall,” his mentor prodded.

“Uh… yeah. Yeah, I’ll go,” he hurriedly confirmed. Not that he’d be able to actually participate… but if he could at least eventually help the current – and future – rookies with some of the questions they might have, he’d consider that a win. “Um… Ya want me to to see if Sykes can cover afternoon training here for the others? Rude’s got other shit he’s gotta do that day.”

“No. I think I can manage a few hours of supervision between my physical therapy appointments,” the senior Turk assured him, “And while you’re in Junon, you and Viridia can sort out a regular schedule for the training, as well… bearing in mind that our helicopter may not always be available for transport, so it would be wise to decide upon a backup method.”

“Can do,” said the redhead.

“Good. And since you’ll be altering the training schedule anyway, I’d like you to block off a half hour or so on Monday mornings for the foreseeable future. Before or after the morning briefing is fine. I don’t have any particular preference, so long as it’s before training begins for the day.”

Reno cocked his head to one side. “Uh… ‘kay. What for?” he asked.

“I’ve been… a bit lax, owing to our dealings with the Zenshou, as well as my recent injury and the general turmoil we’ve been operating under of late. It’s past time you and I had a regular meeting scheduled to discuss the rookies’ progress, rather then one of us dropping in on the other at random to address issues and concerns. Particularly given that yet another of our rookies is due to undergo a certain evaluation in a few more months…”

“Oh… um… o-okay, sure,” he stammered in reply.

“Something wrong?” Tseng queried, but Reno shook his head and laughed softly.

“No, just… this is gettin’ really… real… all of a sudden,” he snickered, “I’m gettin’ a whole new office… I’m plannin’ cross-training with the Materia Corps… and now we got an official rookie meeting every week, and a Hell Week to plan?”

Tseng chuckled faintly. “I do realize I’m throwing a lot at you all at once this morning… With the Zenshou dealt with, we’re all going to be playing catch up for a little while, I’m afraid. But I’m confident that you can handle it.”

“Yeah, sure… No problem…” Reno said, though his own confidence was beginning to falter a bit. Tseng smiled.

“And, of course, should you need my help, that’s precisely what I’m here for. You need only ask for it.”

“Heh… Right. I know,” he replied, grinning slightly.

---

The day went by surprisingly quickly. As Reno had expected, Ryu had been more than a little excited by the prospect of training with Shinra’s elite Materia Corps. What had caught him a little off-guard was the fact that… so had almost everyone else. Zephyr had also signed on, at least for this initial trip, and so had Liam and Petra… though Reno rather suspected that Liam was only really going because Zephyr was.

Only Victor, who had professed himself to be mostly hopeless when it came to materia, had opted to stay behind – leading Reno to quietly wonder whether Victor just didn’t care for magic-based combat after his time in the military, or if perhaps the redhead suddenly wasn’t the only member of the Turks with an inability to use materia.

He’d also quietly snickered to himself as he realized that he wasn’t going to be leaving Tseng with much of anything to do tomorrow.

In the afternoon, he’d returned to his new office to find that what had once been an empty room was now fully – and tastefully – furnished. The effect was a little off-putting. He’d felt like he was walking into an executive’s office, with the large, heavy-looking modern-style desk, the leather-upholstered chairs, and the elegant yet functional floor lamps that illuminated the room in place of the usual overhead florescents. The thought that this was now his space was… going to take some getting used to.

Rude, at least, had been impressed, though… and hadn’t waited long to tease the redhead regarding the fact that he was somewhat dwarfed by the new desk. Reno had responded with a roll of the eyes… but couldn’t help but worry that maybe the joke was a little too on the nose. He felt decidedly out of place sitting there, at the moment, and hoped that he’d grow into the new accommodations quickly.

For now, though, the day was over and he had other things to concern himself with, as he made his way over to the Sector 7 residential district after work. It wasn’t long before he found himself pulling into the parking lot of a not altogether unfamiliar apartment building. He’d spent more than a few nights, after all.

Reno parked and then made his way upstairs to Remy’s apartment, knocking on the door. Like he’d told Rude… he didn’t want to disturb the recuperating Turk unnecessarily… but he also didn’t want to simply abandon her. He knew from experience how mind-numbingly boring and lonely it could get when you were stuck on your own in bed all day.

A minute or two later, the door eased open, revealing the senior Turk… looking tired, battered, and pained, and wrapped in a loose-fitting robe. Even so, she managed a smile upon seeing him.

“Reno…” Remy said softly, stepping back slightly to let him inside.

“Hey,” the redhead replied, grinning slightly. “Thought you might be ready for some company by now, so I figured I’d drop by.”

“To be honest… I’ve haven’t really had time to miss being around other people. I’ve been keeping myself so medicated, I’m not even entirely sure what day it is, at this point,” Remy said, shaking her head. “Attempting to rest when almost every position imaginable involves laying on an injury is not fun.”

Reno’s grin faltered.

“Um… if ya’d rather I didn’t stick around –” he began, suddenly feeling that should have called ahead to make sure she was actually up for a visitor instead of just showing up. But Remy shook her head.

“No! Please, stay…” she replied, “Now that you’re here… I’m glad to see a friendly face.”

Her fingers closed around one of his hands, and she guided him over towards the living room. A moment later, he found himself settled beside her on the couch. She flinched slightly as she tried to get comfortable, and Reno was suddenly hit by a flashback of the sight of her beaten and abused body as he and Kai had cut her down from the ropes holding her suspended above the cave floor in the Zenshou hideout.

“I see what ya mean…” Reno said, frowning. “Anything I can do?”

Remy sighed and shook her head again.

“Unfortunately, it’s just a matter of waiting for everything to heal,” she replied, and then managed a smile, “I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time I’ve been hurt on the job, after all.”

“Yeah… but still…” the redhead said, “I mean… ya hungry or anything?”

“Well… you could catch me up on what’s been happening at the office…” the senior Turk ventured, and Reno couldn’t help but laugh.

“Fuck, Remy… take a day off once in awhile,” he teased.

“I don’t like being out of the loop,” she stated, firmly. Reno grinned.

“Okay, okay…” he said, leaning back against the cushions and running through the series of events since they’d returned to Midgar. “Well… first off, Veld ‘n the others got our guy in Costa del Sol. So unless the Zenshou think we’re still a tempting target without a ready-made buyer waitin’ in the wings for some reason, mission accomplished.”

“Hmph… good. One less threat to deal with. Have we recovered any of out stolen tech?”

“Some, from the guy’s house. Rude’s looking into his files… tryin’ to figure out who he turned around ‘n resold shit to. We’ll probably be able to track down a lot of it… eventually.”

Remy nodded in understanding. “And… Kai?” she cautiously inquired.

“… Yeah. Kai,” Reno exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “She’s suspended for awhile. And… she kinda decided to use that time to figure her shit out. Left yesterday to go sleep in the woods ‘n shit…”

He pointedly left out his suspicions that the somewhat unstable Turk might be venturing out for a little more than just a soul-searching camping trip.

“I… see,” Remy replied, and from her tone, he got the impression that the same thought had occurred to her, anyway.

“But… on the bright side, Tseng’s got his cast off,” he offered.

“What cast?” Remy asked, furrowing her brow slightly. Reno cocked his head, confused for a moment, and then it clicked.

“Oooh… right. You ‘n Rude left for Wutai the same day the prisoner escaped, so you probably didn’t get all the details ’bout that, huh?” he replied, snickering softly, “Yeah… the Boss fucked up his ankle pretty bad while we were tryin’ to chase her down. He’s been on crutches ever since.”

“I… knew you’d both been injured, but I didn’t realize it was anything serious…” she replied, frowning. Reno grinned.

“Heh… I walked away with a broken nose ‘n a headache. Tseng snapped a tendon in his ankle fishin’ me outta the drainage canal. He hasn’t been real happy ’bout bein’ laid up, either. He technically wasn’t s’posed to get the cast off ’til tomorrow.”

“Then… how –?” Remy began, only to be cut off.

“Hacksaw,” Reno replied, with a wide grin, “I think. He already had it off by the time I got to the office, so I can’t say for sure what he used.”

“Oh, for Leviathan’s sake…” she groaned, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, you don’t exactly have room to talk, here. You once came back to work lookin’ like death warmed over ‘n missing half a finger… remember?”

“Hmph… Hardly comparable. I could still walk,” the senior Turk retorted… though it was with a hint of laughter. Reno laughed, too.

“I’ve… missed this. You make for good company,” Remy suddenly confessed a moment later. She leaned closer to him, letting her head rest on his shoulder and closing her eyes. Reno turned slightly to look down at her.

“I’m not the one who needed some ‘distance’, ya know…” he replied somewhat coolly, without really thinking… and then immediately chastised himself for it. Yeah… he was still a little sore about that. But now was definitely not the time to hash things out with Remy regarding their relationship. Or… non-relationship. Or… whatever the hell it was they’d had between them. Not after what she’d been through.

Remy lifted her head and looked up at him, a frown on her face.

“I owe you an apology,” she said, with a sigh. “A better one than what I gave you at the time.”

“Remy, look, you don’t gotta –” he began, but the senior Turk lifted a hand and pressed a finger to his lips.

“No. What I did was unnecessarily cruel, and you did nothing to deserve it,” she continued, “I know how much you value the relationships you’ve cultivated with the people in your life, and it was selfish of me to end things the way I did when the issue was entirely mine.” She let her hand fall back into her lap and sighed softly. “The truth of the matter is… I was scared.”

The redhead blinked somewhat owlishly, and Remy giggled quietly at his expression.

“I don’t always have the easiest time connecting with people on a personal level,” she explained. “Even my fellow Turks, at times. When I began to realize just how close I’d let you get… my first instinct was to push you away. To protect myself. I didn’t want to get hurt… and… I ended up hurting you instead. I’m sorry, Reno.”

“So… any chance you’re reconsiderin’?” Reno asked, hopefully.

“Not about sneaking around from your bed to mine,” she replied with a coy smile, “Besides… you’re officially Tseng’s named successor now. I think it could get… awkward… very quickly if we continued down that road. Tempting as it is…” She leaned against him, letting her head lie on his shoulder again. “But… if you’re alright with a more platonic sort of relationship, I really have missed your company.”

The redhead breathed a quiet sigh of relief upon hearing her say that. All he’d really wanted was to know that his friendship with Remy wasn’t forever fucked up just because he’d let himself get involved with a fellow Turk. Not that he regretted it, per se. But… if he ever had a similar brilliant idea in the future, he was going to have to be a lot more careful about not letting it get to be about more than just the sex… He didn’t need to go through this sort of drama a second time.

Of course… there was always the possibility that he wasn’t ever going to be in any such position again, anyway. After all, Tseng had told him point blank that the others were going to treat him differently when he became the new Second. And if Remy was any indication, his mentor was right. He wasn’t even there yet, and she’d just dismissed the possibility of them continuing to hook up on the grounds that it wouldn’t be appropriate anymore.

“I’d like that,” he finally said, reaching over and brushing a lock of hair away from Remy’s cheek. She smiled.

Things were going to be different for him in the not too distant future. Hell, things already were different for him in a lot of ways… and they were just going to keep changing. It… frightened him a little. Tseng, as usual, had been right when he’d said that his protege disliked change. Reno overwhelmingly preferred the comfortably familiar. But he wasn’t naive enough to think that everything could stay the same forever. He was going to have to learn to better deal with those changes as they came and not freak himself out so much.

He hoped he was up to the challenge.

---

When Wednesday afternoon finally rolled around, the energy among the team’s rookies was palpable. Ryu, in particular, was far more animated than normal… though, that wasn’t really saying much. The kid had an almost unnatural calmness about him most of the time… unless he happened to be pleading for forgiveness or being scared shitless, that is. Reno was even pretty sure he’d once caught him meditating on break.

“Okay, rookies! Everyone who’s headin’ to Junon for materia training… with me,” the redhead called out as he made his way into the lounge where his charges had gathered after lunch.

Four of the five rookies dutifully got to their feet and began walking towards the door.

“You sure you don’t wanna get in on this?” Reno asked, turning his gaze on Victor. The rookie shook his head.

“Guns, explosives, aircraft… I can handle any of that with my hands tied behind my back. But the last time I tried using materia, I almost set myself, the men’s barracks, and three other people on fire,” he snickered, “I’m not quite that willing to tempt fate again.”

Reno grinned and shook his head.

“Heh… yeah. Maybe for the best,” he replied, chuckling. He’d already talked it over with Tseng that morning, wondering whether or not – since all of the other rookies were going – he ought to make the training mandatory and bring Victor along as well, seeing as materia basics were a requirement, even if most Turks didn’t use it. But he’d been informed that such was the case for members of the Shinra military, as well. If Victor’d already had the training, and didn’t want to expand upon it, Tseng had seen no reason to force it on him, and Reno had ultimately agreed. “Alright… let’s move it out. Liam, you’re piloting.”

The rookie in question paused and blinked in surprise.

“Me? I am?” he responded.

“Yep. You need the practice,” he replied, with a wink, “‘Cause, I mean… now that we actually got more than two seconds to breathe around here, it’s about damn time we got your certification exam taken care of… don’tchya think? You met the flight-time requirements to take it like… a month ago.”

Liam shuddered slightly. “Don’t remind me. I’ve been trying not to think about it. I hate taking tests.”

---

Reno cocked his head to one side and gazed into the depths of the lazily swirling glow of a large materia sphere. It was nearly the size of his palm and smooth as glass, with a faint greenish light emanating from within. As he held it, he could feel tiny pinpricks of electricity in his fingertips. Not strong enough to be painful… just enough to remind him of exactly what he was holding.

“We don’t need to have another little talk do we?” a voice to his left teasingly inquired, and the redhead snickered softly, lowering the sphere and turning to look at the approaching individual.

“Nah. Don’t worry, Vir… I learned my lesson,” he said, grinning at the security officer. She laughed quietly and joined him on the bench off to one side of the Materia Corps training grounds.

“Good. Because I don’t want to have to explain to Tseng why I’m sending you back to Midgar comatose,” Viridia said. Reno snorted indignantly and rolled his eyes.

“Tseng?” he replied, “I pull somethin’ that stupid again, the Boss is gonna be the least of my worries. The Doc’ll kill me. I saw what she did to Tseng when he ignored her ’bout his cast…”

Viridia cocked an eyebrow. “What about his cast?” she asked, suspiciously.

“What, he didn’t tell ya?” Reno asked, a little surprised, and the lieutenant commander shook her head, “Heh… He got tired of it ‘n took it off early. Ward wasn’t real happy with him.”

“Oh, really…?” Viridia replied, not sounding particularly amused herself, “Hmph… Sounds like he’s the one I need to have a talk with… not you.”

“Uh… if he asks, ya didn’t hear any of this from me…” Reno quickly backtracked, as he suddenly realized that he was essentially ratting his mentor out to someone who didn’t tolerate foolishness any more than Dr. Ward did. Viridia smirked knowingly, but made no promises on the matter… instead opting to change the subject.

“That Ryu kid’s got real talent. How in the Nine Hells did he slip under our radar? Normally, Materia Corps would have snapped him up the second we saw him in recruitment.”

Reno turned his attention back on the group of students and instructors just in time to see Ryu send a jet of flame directly at one of Vir’s fellow mages. The attack was expertly deflected, and he quickly retaliated with a spell that shook the ground and nearly sent Ryu tumbling as he tried to avoid it. The redhead had to admit… watching two people sparring with materia – when those involved actually knew what the hell they were doing – was pretty fucking awesome.

“You guys actually did make him an offer, according to his file. Almost as soon as he joined the program,” Reno replied, “He decided to hold out for the Turks.”

“Hmph… Our loss, I guess,” Viridia shrugged.

“How are the rest of ’em doin’?” Reno asked as his line of sight traveled away from Ryu’s match and landed on Petra practicing with her own instructor. He… really didn’t know how to judge a person’s skill with materia, having never made any progress whatsoever with it himself. Ryu’s ability was obvious to even the most casual observer… but the others? He had no criteria with which to gauge beginners.

“Mmm… Petra seems reasonably competent with passive materia use in her weapons, but not very well-rounded overall. I’d wager that’s due more to lack of training than lack of ability, though. With a little practice, I think she could become a very proficient caster, if she wanted to.”

Reno shifted his gaze from the area where Petra was practicing, over to a small target range where Liam and Zephyr were stationed.

“How ’bout the other two?”

“Well… for someone with no prior experience, Liam’s catching on fairly quickly. It’s hard to judge a newbie’s ability, especially the very first day of training, but he seems comfortable with the materia, at least. Zephyr’s a bit more… hesitant. She doesn’t entirely trust the materia, so it doesn’t always respond the way she wants it to,” Viridia replied, “As a general rule, though, I don’t like to grade my true novices until they’ve had a chance to really show me what they can do. One afternoon of training isn’t enough for that.” She elbowed him gently and gave him a friendly smile when he looked over at her. “I didn’t even come to a conclusion about your ability until we’d been practicing together for almost a week.”

“Tch… my complete and total lack of ability, ya mean…” the redhead sighed.

“You’re not still upset about it… are you?”

Reno laughed softly. “Nah, not really. I mean… I don’t really care that I can’t use materia to fight ‘n shit, but… it does kinda suck that I’m gonna be so useless when it comes to trainin’ others whenever it comes up. I don’t need to be an expert… I just wish I wasn’t complete shit at this. Trainin’ the rookies is one of the things I like best ’bout the job.”

“Hmph… I wish I could tell you otherwise, but you already know that you’re probably never going to be able to do much more than cast the occasional low-level lighting spell no matter how much you train,” Vir replied, smiling slightly as she reached over to tussle his hair. Reno rolled his eyes and attempted – futilely – to duck away.

“Yeah, yeah… I know,” the redhead groaned. He really didn’t need a reminder. He was painfully aware of that fact at the moment.

“A good leader knows his limits… and when to ask for help.” Viridia continued, “Believe it or not, even your sacrosanct mentor isn’t an expert in everything.”

Reno raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?” he chuckled softly, “You know somethin’ ’bout Tseng I don’t?”

“You lived with him. Surely you must have sampled what he calls cooking…” Viridia deadpanned, drawing a laugh from the young Turk. She grinned in reply. “He’s no more perfect than you are. I know that’s a little hard to see from where you’re sitting… but it’s true. And he may be the best at a lot of things, but believe me… that wasn’t always the case. Tseng worked hard to get where he is. You will, too.”

“Heh… thanks,” Reno responded, turning his attention back on his rookies.

“Just… keep in mind that all of this training, here and in Midgar, is as much for your benefit as it is for theirs. They’re still learning to be Turks. You’re still learning to be a leader.”

Reno suddenly snickered loudly and looked back over at Viridia. “Did Tseng tell ya to give me a pep talk or somethin’? ‘Cause this is startin’ to sound an awful lot like a pep talk…”

“No,” Viridia laughed, “But I figured a little encouragement never hurt anyone.”

~end chapter 79~