Aftermath

Author’s Note: Only warning this time is language. (Did I mention that there's lots and lots of foul language? XDD) I consider this chapter the last bit of calm before the storm. Time to divulge what the hell is actually going on in this story.

Thank you to...
- Youkofox, for your beta read through.
- Iggy Lovechild, for your review and usual eh... stuff. ^^; There's a lot of Rude in this chapter. Now that I think about it, he's actually got a lot more to do in this fic. Hmmm. I didn't realize his muse was going to get so loud for the end of this story.
- kamizuki, for your review. Cloud and Tifa are best friends in the purest of ways. It's time for them to move onto a more mature relationship as far as I'm concerned. Glad you liked it.
- Squallfan, for your review. Aw, thanks. I appreciate the support. I'm glad at least one person out there (you) can make it through reading my smutless chapters. Although, I should menton that there is more smut coming in this story, just in case you were wondering. *wink* I'm gonna have to go wild with some one-shots when I get this project done, I think. ^^
- Mirel, for your review. Even Cloud ROFL'd at that part. Nice to see you two having something in common. ^^

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Chapter 11: Discovering

“This is unacceptable news,” Rufus said. His normally calm voice had taken on an unfamiliar tone, one mixed with something dark and menacing, yet it wavered slightly as if he was nearing some sort of mental breakdown. He stood up and leaned one palm heavily on the conference table. His other hand was stiffly pointing a shaky index finger squarely at Tseng. “I want this threat removed immediately.”

Reno couldn’t help but notice the change that had come over his boss so quickly and he watched Rufus with fascination, his mouth opening in stunned silence. The man’s eyes were radiating with a blazing furor; Reno couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Rufus so animated.

Dropping his unsteady hand to the tabletop, Rufus continued, “I’ll not risk another epidemic.”

Reno tried not to stare, but he was unable to prevent himself from doing so. His boss had only recently been cured of his Geostigma and was understandably passionate about the subject. Rufus’ recovery had been nothing short of miraculous, but the hell he’d endured prior to his cure was something Reno hoped he never had to witness again.

Certainly the simple act of harvesting mako wasn’t going to cause Geostigma to make a comeback; the calamity had been responsible for that. Still, if left unchecked, Reno understood that sucking the lifestream from the planet wasn’t exactly a good idea. At the very least they risked reawakening the Weapons and who knows what else. Now that all the ancients were gone there was no one left alive who could summon Holy if it were ever needed again. Humankind had been left vulnerable and anything could happen. Reno closed his eyes for a moment and tried not to think about the fact that they really couldn’t afford to make any mistakes here.

“How would you like us to—?”

“Destroy everything,” Rufus said more forcefully, interrupting Tseng before he could fully express himself. “I don’t care how you bloody well do it.”

“Sir?” Tseng cleared his throat, sounding surprised. He folded his hands on the table, something Reno rarely ever saw him do. Tseng was clearly trying to compose himself and Reno was secretly hoping that his senior wouldn’t be able to get himself under control. Sparks would be sure to fly if Tseng found the courage to disagree with Rufus, especially if it happened in a meeting in front of the rest of them.

Reno stole a quick glance at Rude. His partner mirrored his smirk and mouthed the word “explosives” silently. Reno began to allow himself to start looking forward to this assignment, especially if they were given as much creative license as they needed to get the job done. At the very least, it would be anything but boring. Reno suppressed a wide grin as he thought about it.

“And cover it up,” Rufus said, his voice hissing with white hot anger. “I won’t have the public thinking that this has anything to do with my company.”

Tseng nodded, either unable to come up with any words to counter what Rufus was asking for or just resigning himself to the fact that the orders were an undisputable command. Reno wasn’t sure which, but it didn’t really matter to him. Rufus had just given them permission to do what he and his partner enjoyed most about their job: the fact that they could fuck shit up and get away with it. They’d leave the cover up business to Tseng, after all that’s what he did best these days.

Rufus steadied himself, clearly satisfied with Tseng’s response to his demands. His eyes lingered as he gazed at Reno for a moment before saying anything further. Reno shifted in his chair, his eyelids hovering lazily at Rufus.

“I expect results in two days,” Rufus said, his sinister blue eyes flicked back to Tseng, as if inviting a challenge, but not quite expecting one from the man. Reno masked his disappointment when Tseng averted his gaze and responded again with a curt nod.

“Yes, I understand, Sir,” Tseng said.

“Very good,” Rufus said. “I trust that I’m no longer needed in this meeting. If any additional concerns arise, please send a report.”

Rufus looked at Reno again briefly before moving on, but the red-head caught the glance. If they needed to involve Rufus in anything further, the task of reporting it to him and soliciting his opinions would likely go to him. It always did. Not that Reno particularly minded having his own personal audience with the boss. If anything, it provided some nice job security.

Reno smirked thoughtfully as he watched Rufus leave the room. All four Turks were silent, absorbed in their own private thoughts about what Rufus had just told them to do. Reno bounced his leg unconsciously, as his internal excitement began to cross its threshold within him.

“It’s not my fault,” Elena said, breaking the silence in the room. “He didn’t even let us get through the whole presentation. All I said was that Seneco got the mako harvester working again and he went nuts.”

“Elena,” Tseng said briskly, his tone sounding a little harsher than he’d probably intended. Elena flinched, hunching her shoulders as if he’d smacked her. “How many user accounts did you find in the data Reno gathered?”

“Well over two hundred, Sir,” she said. Tseng visibly paled and closed his eyes, letting an uncharacteristic sigh escape his lips. Reno had to admit that he was surprised at Tseng’s quick subject change.

“We can handle that many,” Rude said.

“What?” Reno said, only momentarily taken aback by his partner’s blatant confidence. Thinking that perhaps Rude had completely lost what was left of his mind, he leaned back in his chair and waited for an explanation.

“And how exactly would you do that?” Tseng said, looking skeptically at Rude.

“Well,” Rude pushed his glasses up firmly against his face and he leaned forward a bit. “We only gotta take out the northern reactor, right?”

Tseng nodded, “Yes, we have confirmed that it is the only research center and data location they have.”

“It’s still wired,” Rude said, crossing his arms smugly.

Elena gasped quietly, drawing in a short breath. Reno blinked, knowing exactly what Rude was talking about. Back when the reactors had originally been built, Shinra had ensured that each one was equipped with it’s own self-destruct sequence. That installation had included a long network of daisy chained explosives, set specifically to destroy the entire reactor if activated.

Reno remembered hearing that the reason it had been done, was so that the reactor could be destroyed at a moment’s notice for “public safety” reasons. As much as that thought amused him now, Reno knew that things had been different when the reactors had first been built, because no one really knew what to expect.

As it turned out, none of the destruct sequences had ever been needed. Reno could relate to Elena’s reaction perfectly now. Essentially, all of the reactors that encircled the ruins of Midgar were sitting there like dormant volcanoes.

“Didn’t AVALANCHE fuck the wiring up when they bombed the place?”

Rude shook his head, “I don’t think so. All the lines and spread boxes I saw when we were in there were lookin’ good.”

Reno found himself thinking about when the reactor had been targeted by AVALANCHE about two years ago. Apparently the terrorist organization’s operation had been cruder than he had originally thought. If what Rude was saying was correct, AVALANCHE had only succeeded in partially destroying the mako harvester inside and causing limited structural damage. He glanced slyly at his partner, privately pleased with Rude’s inherent talent when it came to quickly assessing the nature of anything that might be considered an explosive.

“You failed to mention that in your report,” Tseng said, irritation showing on his face.

“I didn’t think I had to,” Rude said defensively. “I thought we were supposed to be handlin’ this shit a little more quiet-like.”

“Sounds like that’s changed,” Reno said, smirking. “Personally, I like the idea of fuckin’ the place up.”

“You would,” Elena said, shaking her head at Reno. “That’s so damn immature.”

Tseng held up his hand, which usually meant that he was asking for silence. Reno glared at Elena for a moment, before deciding not to stick his tongue out at her. Tseng was staring directly at him, his eyes narrowed, as if warning him not to pursue the discussion further.

Reno sighed in exasperation. Things were tense thanks to Rufus’ little outburst earlier and he didn’t want to take the chance that Tseng would snap and change his assignment to anything dull. He shrugged instead, pulling his pack of smokes out of his pocket. He dangled a cigarette from his lips, letting the fresh spicy smell of the unlit tobacco soothe his irritated nerves.

“Do not light that in here,” Tseng said, rising from his chair.

“Wasn’t gonna,” Reno said, as he noticed Elena’s smug expression.

Reno scratched his cheek with his middle finger, sending a clear message to her without having to say anything out loud. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, puckered his lips and winked at her, careful to do so while Tseng’s back was turned. Elena glowered at him briefly as he returned to acting like nothing had happened between them.

“Something bothering you, Elena?” Tseng said suddenly.

Elena’s face flushed and she gritted her teeth, “No, Sir.”

Reno hid his amusement with practiced control. As far as he was concerned, Elena would never be able to win an argument with him. Even after all these years, it was deliciously fun to taunt her into getting reprimanded. She refused to meet his gaze and he flicked his eyes away from her, giving Tseng the majority of his attention.

“I am not going to draw this out,” Tseng said.

“Finally, some good news,” Rude said under his breath.

“You have your orders,” Tseng said, showing no sign of having heard Rude’s comment. “Read over the data sheets and report any inconsistencies or questions to me immediately.”

Tseng paused at the door, turning to look at each one of the Turks briefly before speaking again, “We cannot fail tomorrow.”

As the door closed behind Tseng, Elena stood up and stalked out of the room, but not before shooting another glare in Reno’s direction. The red-head just smirked at her and shrugged.

With the distractions out of the room, Reno looked at the stack of paper in front of him on the table and closed his eyes, letting loose a deep sigh. Nothing was more cumbersome than reading Tseng’s documents. When he opened his eyes again, Reno looked at his partner briefly.

“You mind?” Reno said, gesturing with his cigarette.

“Whatever,” Rude said. Reno lit his cigarette, took a deep drag, and flipped the pages of the report, not really intending to read it just yet.

“Did you read any of this shit yet?”

“Not really,” Rude said. “I was hopin’ you could read it and tell me what we gotta do.”

“Fuck,” Reno said. “It’s like eighty pages.”

“You can handle it.”

“Oh, c’mon. I ain’t gonna go over all this shit by myself. You need to fuckin’ learn how to read.”

“I know how to read,” Rude said, growling. “Besides, you owe me. You do this, and we’re even again.”

Reno took another long draw off his cigarette, looking at his partner with faint respect. Rude was sharper than people gave him credit for. Earlier, when they’d returned to base, the bald Turk had been acting so ready to turn him in for his unprofessional distraction with Cloud in Midgar. Reno had managed to talk his way out of it, but now he was starting to wonder if Rude had really intended to turn him in at all. It was more likely that his partner had just realized a good opportunity to be on the receiving end of a favor when he’d seen it.

“Man, you’re fuckin’ unbelievable,” Reno said.

Rude stood up and tossed his pile of documents on top of Reno’s, “Let me know what we’re doin’ and when.”

As Rude left, Reno’s stared disdainfully at the pile of paperwork in front of him. The stack was now double the size it had been a moment ago. His eyes glazed over briefly as he took a final drag from his cigarette. Rebelliously snuffing it out on the tabletop, he flicked the crushed filter at the trashcan without making sure it had landed where he’d intended. As he stood up, he grabbed a wide manila folder from the middle of the table and put the papers inside, resigning himself to the fact that he’d be sitting at his desk the rest of the afternoon.

Four hours later, he’d read through every godforsaken document that Tseng had ordered them to look over. Reno’s eyes stung and he felt like there wasn’t enough whiskey in the world to take away the dry feeling in the back of his throat. He’d burned a pack of cigarettes in that time without realizing that he’d been chain-smoking and suddenly the idea of smoking one more was making him sick.

At least he fully understood what was going on now; that was the only good thing to come of all that forced reading. Reno rested his head against his desk, letting the cool metal soothe his tired forehead. The room was still and the only sounds that could be heard were the whir of Elena’s computer and the sound of his own raspy breathing. He coughed, but it didn’t make him feel any better.

He considered calling Rude to discuss their assignments, but he couldn’t bring himself to bother pulling his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. He sat back up with great effort and his eyes were drawn to a couple messy stains on his sleeve. He rubbed at the cuff with one of his fingers and bent over to touch his nose to it. Inhaling deeply, he shuddered, surprised that he could still smell Cloud’s essence on his clothes. His imagination had fresh inspiration and if Reno closed his eyes, he could still feel the blond’s lips on his and Cloud’s hand caressing him wetly. . .

Reno sucked his breath in suddenly, a bit disgusted with himself for the rush of desire that washed over him at the simple thought of Cloud touching him. He glanced at his desk clock, suddenly wanting to know what time it was. Reality was starting to sink in; it was late evening and Cloud still hadn’t called him.

He fidgeted in his chair, trying not to let that last thought bother him. He suddenly wished that he had Cloud’s cell number. The last time he’d tried to get it from Tifa, she’d shut him down pretty quickly, saying that it was a private number. Well, things were a lot more private between them now, that was for certain.

He pulled the white envelope that Rufus had given him out of his pocket and opened it up, letting the little paper and cardboard clippings spill across his desk. He read each one, stopping suddenly, as he saw the name of a little risqué shop he’d been known to frequent every once and awhile. He noted with amusement that they had a new slogan that he’d never seen before: “We Deliver. . . Pleasure.” The coupon promised large discounts and freebies amid artwork that featured lustful looking little heart-shaped smiley faces. Reno tried to imagine what sort of stuff they were giving away and wondered whether or not Cloud had ever shopped there before.

Letting his head lean against the back of his chair, he licked his lips, deep in thought. He supposed it didn’t matter when Cloud actually called him. As long as he had the vague hope of some sort of future contact floating around in the back of his mind, he was happy.

Reno found it ridiculously ironic that for the first time in two years, he’d made an honest attempt to have a life outside of work, and now work was interfering with that. He’d spent so much time sitting around, being idle; he had nearly gone out of his skull wishing that anything exciting would happen. Now the shit was hitting the fan again and he resented the timing of it all. If Cloud did call wanting to do something tonight, he’d have to find a way to say that he couldn’t do it.

I don’t know if I could tell him no, Reno mused to himself.

The desk phone rang suddenly, jarring him out of his private thoughts. Rude’s number was showing on the caller ID, and Reno felt faintly annoyed, but certainly not upset by the distraction. After all, they had to discuss some serious shit before they rolled out to Midgar again in the morning.

“Yo,” Reno said, picking up the phone.

“You comin’ down?” Rude said. “I got some whiskey waitin’ to be put on ice and let me tell you, it’s gettin’ impatient.”

Reno chuckled and he started gathering up his paperwork, “Listen, I got a couple things left to do. I’ll be down in a few.”

“Well, hurry the fuck up. I ain’t plannin’ on drinkin’ alone,” Rude said, hanging up on him.

Reno smiled as he put the receiver back down, not bothered at all by his partner’s abruptness. They were both a bit on edge and Reno had learned long ago not to read into Rude’s actions too deeply. The man just did things his way, and that was all Reno really needed to understand.

When Reno finally made it to the underground dorm area a few minutes later, Rude was waiting for him with a deck of cards. Reno shook his head.

“No way,” Reno said. “I ain’t got any money to lose.”

“Hmm,” Rude grunted.

Reno brandished the manila folder at his partner, “Wait a second. You want to play cards instead of talk about our assignments? How much of this shit do you already know?”

“Some of it,” Rude said, tossing the pack of cards onto the small round table in their tiny living room. “Well, most of it.”

Reno held back a frustrated growl. He hadn’t wasted his entire afternoon for nothing. They were going to talk about this shit until he felt like he had a good handle on it.

“Let me make sure I understand, then, since you already know it all,” Reno said, his tongue clicked in his mouth.

Rude chuckled, shaking his head as he walked into their efficiency kitchenette. The dorms were not large enough to have a full kitchen. If they needed anything more complicated than a microwave and refrigerator, they had to use the shared kitchen at the end of the hall. Usually though, these two devices were more than enough for the two of them. Reno followed close behind, the folder open and papers flapping around as the wind from his movement threatened to lift them out of his grasp.

“It says in here that Seneco hired some displaced Shinra scientists, then figured out how to repair one of our old mako harvesters. Why the hell would they pick the northern reactor?”

“Probably because no one would expect that one to be workin’,” Rude said. “I’m guessin’ whoever deactivated them after Weapon’s attack probably neglected to mess with it, thinkin’ that AVALANCHE had already done the job for them.”

“Fuck, so it was probably in better shape than the rest of them,” Reno said, gasping. “I hate it when shit like this falls through the cracks.”

Rude shrugged, “I’m surprised more shit didn’t go wrong.”

“Well, I ain’t done yet,” Reno said. “Supposedly Seneco’s gang came up with a new method of channeling and storing mako then started doin’ experiments to see what kind of results they could get.”

“That explains the head ornaments,” Rude said. “Those things are the storage units.”

Reno put the folder down on the counter and flipped through a few pages before stopping on what he was looking for, “They called the project “CROWN”.”

“What the fuck does that stand for?”

“You got me,” Reno said. “The report is missing that info. It does say though, that the members of his gang wear the crowns with those pins buried in their skull, and it gives them all sorts of physical enhancements, from strength to speed, depending on the natural talent of the person wearin’ one.”

“Sounds fuckin’ painful,” Rude said, “Lucky for us, that shit don’t hold a permanent charge.”

“Not only that, when the crowns lose their charge, they’re worthless,” Reno said. “Like the ones Tseng and Elena found near the incinerator. Those little glass beads embedded in the metal and mesh ain’t just decorations, they’re miniature materia blobs, left over from the mako refinin’ process.”

“And like all materia, the shit just don’t last forever,” Rude said. “Once you use up the energy, the power is gone.”

“We gotta be careful, yo,” Reno said, pointing to the paperwork. “These guys sound like glorified SOLDIERs, if I’m readin’ this right.”

“It ain’t gonna be that bad,” Rude said. “There’s only a couple of them.”

“Wait,” Reno said, flipping a few more pages. “Where did you see that? I thought Elena said there were over two hundred.”

“Page twenty-three,” Rude said, with a grin. He opened the small cabinet in their tiny kitchen and pulled two glasses out and filled them halfway with ice he’d brought in from the shared kitchen.

Reno flipped to the page Rude mentioned, briefly wondering when Rude had found the time to become so intimately familiar with these documents. Flustered and a bit annoyed, Reno reread some of the detail outlined on the page as quickly as he could. His mouth drifted open in a surprised circle.

“How’d I miss this? About the short life span?”

“Maybe you need to learn how to fuckin’ read,” Rude said, somehow able to keep his face straight and serious as he repeated what Reno had said to him right after the meeting earlier that day.

“No, seriously,” Reno said. “Is this right? All we gotta do it rip the crown off any of these guys and they lose their enhancements? It says that unless they are recharged with a new crown within twenty four hours after it’s removed, they die.”

“Yep,” Rude said, taking the cap off the whiskey bottle in front of him. He poured the light, sweet smelling liquid into each glass, before lifting one to his nose to further appreciate the deep aroma. Reno could smell it from where he was standing and his mouth began to salivate.

“Hey, give me some,” he said, grabbing the other glass off the counter.

“There’s only two successful experiments right now,” Rude said, tapping the bottom half of the document. “Meanin’, we don’t gotta deal with too many of these freaks.”

“Well, that’s one for each of us,” Reno said. “Sounds doable.”

“I’m hopin’ they’re both charging up like I saw them doin’ this morning. They don’t seem to be able to do much when hooked up to that equipment,” Rude said. “That room is fuckin’ loaded up nicely. There’s more explosives in there than in the rest of the entire reactor. Once I set off the destruct sequence, well, let’s just say that if they’re in that room, we ain’t gonna have to deal with them after that.”

“You got the codes memorized already?”

Rude tapped his head silently, letting Reno know that he did indeed have them memorized. Reno took a quick sip of his whiskey and licked his lips appreciatively. Rude must have been holding this stuff back for some time. It was some of the best alcohol Reno had tasted in awhile.

“What’s the special occasion?” Reno said, tilting his head toward his glass. Rude didn’t answer him right away, but Reno already had an idea why his partner was breaking out the good stuff. On nights before dangerous missions, they’d often talked about what life would be like if one of them didn’t make it back. Leaving behind good liquor was something that neither of them saw a point in doing.

“You know,” Rude said. “Same reason as always.”

“You’re not worried about tomorrow, are you?” Reno said, looking at Rude with a lazy and deliberate gaze. He set his glass down for a moment, and straightened up the papers inside his folder. He was pretty sure he had a good handle on the situation now. They’d probably discuss tactics the rest of the night.

“Nope, just as long as you ain’t plannin’ on fuckin’ around with Cloud again in the middle of all the shit,” Rude said, grinning obnoxiously.

“For the last time, I didn’t fuckin’ plan that,” Reno said in exasperation. His tone softened and he gazed at Rude flirtatiously, “Although, I did enjoy it.”

Rude shot him a warning glance over the top of his shades and shook his head. He wandered back out of the kitchenette, put his glass and the whiskey bottle down on the table. He picked up his cards, removed them from the pack, and gave them a quick overhand shuffle.

“C’mon, I’ll loan you some gil,” Rude said. “One game.”

Reno laughed, following Rude into the living room. It never ended up being one game; he knew better than to believe that bullshit. He glanced at the clock, feeling a little anxious about their mission the next day. It’s not that he was worried exactly, he was just eager to get to it. He suddenly found himself wishing that Cloud had called him. It would have been nice to have a warm body in bed with him tonight to take the edge off his growing anticipation.

Rude pulled a chair out from the table and sat down in it, tapping the cards on the flat surface. He looked up at Reno as if detecting his sudden change in mood. He frowned slightly, “You gonna spend the night down here or you gonna go see if the boss is workin’ late?”

His partner was implying a lot with that question, but Reno didn’t really feel like dealing with it all right now. He pulled out the other chair and sat down, slouching immediately.

“Nah, I figured I’d just sit here and lose my next couple paychecks,” he said, not wanting to admit that he was still hoping that Cloud might call.

“We don’t gotta play for money tonight,” Rude said gruffly, inviting Reno to cut the cards. Once Reno’s slender fingers had left the deck, Rude dealt five cards to each of them. A sinister grin flashed across his partner’s lips as he picked up his cards, “I can wait until next payday to take the rest of your gil.”

“Classy,” Reno said with an amused grin. “Just keep that bottle close by. I’m gonna need a refill real soon.”

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A/N: Wow. Well, if you made it through all 4500 words there, please drop me a review, let me know how I'm doing, and please please be kind. ^_^ (I know that was a lot of information to absorb, but hopefully it was at least somewhat entertaining along the way. I can see light at the end of the tunnel finally! There's only a few more chapters to go, and it's shaping up to be a hell of a ride... Buckle up, yo!)