Thanks for the memories

“Thanks for the Memories”
A Reno fan fiction
Chapter 16: “A good Turk follows orders”
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*Disclaimer: The world that this story is set in and all characters therein belong to Square-Enix. This fiction piece is strictly a non-profit exercise of creativity and entertainment for people (like me) who can’t get enough of this world and the characters.*
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Yo, I didn’t recognize Aerith’s friend right away. It had been a few months since Zack died…almost a year, in fact. The reports didn’t have good pictures of him and his buddy and the President kept us Turks so busy trying to track down AVALANCHE that I never had time to think about the guy that got away—until the day I was assigned to get Aerith and bring her back to HQ.

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Reno sensed a difference in the atmosphere of the church as soon as he stepped through the doors. The ShinRa grunts that accompanied him were right behind him and when he walked far enough down the isle to spot Aerith and the flowerbed, he held out his hand in a commanding gesture for the grunts to stop. There was a young man with Aerith. From his point of view, all Reno could see was that he had blond hair that was fashioned so that the back was above the collar and the top was long and styled into feathered spikes. He frowned and stared at the stranger, thinking there was something familiar about him.

Aerith looked up and noticed him. The young Cetra sighed heavily and shook her head with patient exasperation, used to being spied on by the Turks but nonetheless irritated with it. The blonde guy with her noticed her change of focus and he turned to follow her gaze, presenting Reno with a full view of his face. Reno felt a thrill of recognition but he couldn’t quite place where it came from. Blondie approached slowly, reaching up and behind to grasp the hilt of a sword strapped to his back. Aerith stood up and clasped her hands together nervously, looking between her new friend and Reno uncertainly.

“Who are you?” The blonde asked evenly, staring at Reno with unwavering eyes as bright and blue as the ocean. He had youthful, fine-sculpted features that bordered on being pretty and while he wasn’t heavily built or particularly tall, he had an athletic frame. The tight, sleeveless blue sweater he wore with the cargo pants and combat boots molded to his torso, revealing that his compact muscles were toned and powerful even if they weren’t thick like Rude’s. He was built a little heavier than Reno but not by much.

~Hmmm…nice body, yo. I know those eyes, too. Where do I know those eyes from?~

“Reno, of the Turks,” answered the redhead with an intrigued, blue-green stare. “Who’s asking, yo?”

The blonde gave him a hard little smirk. “Nobody important. I used to be—” He stopped suddenly and clutched his head with a groan, making Reno frown suspiciously at him.

“Hey sis, this one’s a little weird,” one of the grunts muttered.

“Tell me about it,” the female private beside him responded.

Reno looked over his shoulder at the siblings. “Shaddup.” He turned his attention back to the blonde guy and glanced briefly at Aerith. The blonde recovered from his odd, sudden headache and he noticed Reno’s glance at the Cetra.

“I don’t know what you want with Aerith, but you’ll have to go through me to get to her,” Blondie growled.

“Don’t fight in here!” Aerith called out, “You’ll ruin the flowers!”

The blonde looked over his shoulder at her and she gestured for him to come with her as she started toward the back of the church, where there were doors on either side. He shot one more warning, blue glare at Reno and the grunts before following her. Reno got a look at the sword strapped to his back and he recognized it. He started forward slowly, not paying attention to where he was stepping as he watched Aerith and her friend go through the back doors.

“Mako eyes,” he whispered, “and a really huge fucking sword. Coincidence?” He thought back to the day he and the other search teams had arrived too late to help Zack Fair and he remembered spotting the First’s blonde friend far in the distance, dragging Zack’s buster sword as he stumbled toward Midgar. Could the blonde have recovered this much in such a short time, to exude so much strength and confidence?

~Well, I guess if he could go from being catatonic from Mako poisoning to walking on his own in a half hour, it’s not impossible. It’s been a few months, yo. I’m gonna have to look up those files again and be sure this guy’s who I think he is and not just some random dude that snagged the sword.~

There was little doubt in Reno’s mind, though. While he’d never gotten a good look at Cloud Strife’s face before, he remembered the eyes and he’d never seen a color and intensity like that before. What were the chances that some other guy with the same hair and eye color just happened to get his hands on that buster sword?

“Hey Reno, you’re stepping on the flowers!” The female grunt warned.

“You’re gonna get in trouble,” her brother snickered.

Reno rolled his eyes. ~Grunts,~ he thought in derision. “Go after them, yo.” He beckoned them impatiently. “Oh and uh, watch out for the flowers.”

“But you just stepped—“

“You’re here to help bring the girl in, not be a smartass,” Reno snapped. “Now go after them!”

Sufficiently cowed, the grunts hurried to do what he asked. Reno stood unmoving for a moment, staring at the flowers blankly as he turned things over in his mind. He sighed and moved to follow the grunts. He could confirm his suspicions later, after he finished his job.

When Reno passed through the doorway and joined the grunts, he looked up to see that Aerith and her friend-that-could-be-Strife were climbing the rotting stairs leading up to the bell tower. He was about to order his companions to follow but they took matters into their own hands before he could say anything.

“Don’t let the Ancient get away!” One of them shouted, and they opened fire on the retreating couple.

Reno’s heart went into his throat. They were armed with tranquilizer guns but Aerith was at least two floors up and if they hit her with one of those darts and she fell, she could break her neck. Not only would Tseng have his ass in a sling, but the President would probably order he and the grunts executed for killing the last surviving Cetra.

“Hold your fire!” Reno hollered, trying to be heard over the gunfire.

Aerith tripped in her panic and she tumbled down the flight of stairs she was on.

“I SAID HOLD YOUR GODDAMNED FIRE!!” Reno shouted at the top of his voice, grabbing one of the grunts by the straps of his body armor and punching him in the face hard enough to knock him out cold. They stopped and cringed while Reno looked at Aerith anxiously, hoping against hope she wasn’t hurt.

Her blonde friend had stopped climbing the stairs and was peering over the railing with worried sapphire eyes. He shouted her name desperately and she groaned and got to her feet, appearing shaken and a little sore but otherwise unharmed. Reno blew a sigh of relief and motioned for the grunts to pursue her.

“No more shooting, assholes,” Reno growled as they moved to obey.

Aerith recovered and looked up at the advancing grunts. “Cloud, help!” She cried.

Reno looked sharply up at the watching blonde at the sound of his name. ~So it IS him…it’s got to be!~

“Hold on a sec!” Cloud hollered, and he ran further up the stairs to the beams crossing the ceiling.

Reno was puzzled. ~What the hell…is he abandoning her or what?~

He got his answer when an old barrel came crashing down the stairs just ahead of the first pursuing grunt. He tried to avoid it but it knocked him off his feet and took him out of the chase. Aerith yelled her thanks to the blonde and continued up the stairs, with the remaining two conscious grunts following behind her. Another barrel crashed down, right on the closest one’s head. Reno swore and started forward, certain that if he didn’t join in the chase the girl would get away.

~Or maybe that’s what I really want to happen, yo? I was sent to make sure they didn’t screw up but I could have helped earlier and we might have her right now if I’d have done more than shout orders.~

Another barrel tumbled down and took out the last grunt, giving Aerith time to climb up the remaining flights of stairs and join her waiting friend. Reno swore again as the two of them made it safely out the hole in the roof. He had cadets lying unconscious all around him and given how spry Blondie was, by the time the redhead could follow him and Aerith out they’d be long gone. With a heavy sigh, the Turk pulled out his cellphone and flipped it up.

“Yo Tseng, it’s Reno. The target got away, man. She had help.” He thought of telling his superior who had helped Aerith but he wanted to be positively certain it wasn’t just a crazy coincidence, first. Part of him was in denial and he wasn’t sure why. If he’d taken time to examine his feelings, he would have realized he was trying to deny it because he didn’t feel right about being in opposition to Zack’s friend. The kid had been through more than enough and while Reno was good at his job, he hadn’t quite mastered the art of separating his feelings from his job, yet.

“I see,” Tseng answered calmly. “Return to Headquarters so that you and the cadets can give your reports. I’d like to know what happened.”

“On our way, yo. At least, as soon as these guys get back to their feet.” Reno hung up and shook his head, telling himself he wasn’t relieved that Aerith and her friend had gotten away.

~**********************************~

I know, it sounds like I was thick-headed with the whole Strife thing. I guess I just didn’t want to believe it was the same guy. I didn’t go straight to Tseng’s office when I got back to Headquarters—instead I went to mine and looked up the file on Cloud Strife as fast as I could. It had him listed as deceased but I knew that was wrong before I even saw him in the church. I zoomed and enhanced the crappy picture of him as much as I could and when I did, I couldn’t deny it anymore, yo. Aerith’s “bodyguard” was Cloud Strife, all right.

I sat there for a little while and tried to decide what to say to Tseng. Rufus knew about Zack’s execution and he knew his friend got away, but otherwise he stayed out of the whole thing because he was too busy dealing with things in Junon to worry about it. He knew the Turks went on a separate mission to rescue Fair and Strife because he and Tseng always talked things over. Yeah, Rufus was part of the Turks’ little behind-the-scenes mutiny.

As you know by now, the power struggle between him and his old man had been going on for years and it was only getting worse. He had a totally different vision of ShinRa and he gave Tseng autonomy to act in the best interests of that vision, yo. His only thing was that it had to be covert. If we ever got caught going against President Shinra’s orders there wasn’t a single one of us that would ever give away that Rufus was involved. The Turks still had to answer to the President but we really belonged to his son.

When I went to Tseng’s office the grunts were already there and they looked pretty scared. Not surprising, since Heidegger was there too and he was glaring at ‘em. He glared at me when I came in and I just glared right back. I didn’t owe any more respect for that mangy fucker than I had to give, yo. Tseng scolded me for being late but by then, we could sort of communicate without talking when we were face to face. He knew there was a good reason for me being late by the look in my eyes.

We gave our report and those damned grunts tried to make me the pigeon, saying I didn’t do anything to help. Technically I guess that was at least a little true but I hit ‘em back and reported that I was too busy stopping them from killing Aerith to do much else. They got suspended for three weeks and all I got was a slap on the wrist for being late, so ha-fucking-ha on them. I had to mention that Aerith had an accomplice and the grunts gave his name, but Heidegger didn’t seem to recognize it. Tseng did, though. He glanced at me and I could see the questions in his eyes. Tseng ordered me to stick around after the debriefing and when we were alone in his office, he started asking questions, yo.

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Tseng stood straight and dignified before his desk, studying Reno curiously. “They said that Aerith addressed the man who was helping her as ‘Cloud’. Is that why you gave me the look when you came in, Reno? Was her bodyguard’s name mere coincidence or was he our missing fugitive?”

“The second guess, yo.” Reno crossed his arms over his chest and the EMR dangling from his right wrist bumped against his hip. “I was late because I was checking Strife’s old files to be sure. There’s no doubt about it—he’s our missing blonde and he still had Zack’s sword with him.”

Tseng almost smiled. “That’s good. The only trouble is he may get in the way of our job, by the sounds of things. The President wants Aerith brought in and it appears that Strife has appointed himself as her guardian.”

“So I guess that means we’ll have to fight him if he gets in the way?” Reno said without his usual enthusiasm.

Tseng recognized the tone of voice. He’d heard it a few years ago when Reno talked about Zack. He knew the redhead didn’t know Strife well enough yet to have formed an attachment to him but Reno did have a conscience. Tseng was certain that he was feeling the same helpless guilt for what Cloud and Zack had gone through at the Company’s hand, even though the Turks and Rufus weren’t responsible for it.

The Wutaian closed the distance between himself and his second-in-command and he put his hands on Reno’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I know it’s uncomfortable to think of a rivalry with him, given everything he’s suffered at the hands of our company. We must remember to put our personal feelings aside when on the job, Reno. Can you do that?”

Reno shrugged. “I’ve done it before and it’s not like I’ve got much choice. Doesn’t mean I’ve gotta like it, yo.”

Tseng squeezed his shoulders. “Of course. Your thoughts and feelings are your own—it’s your loyalty that this organization wants. Things will change for the better when Rufus is in charge.”

“I can’t wait for that to happen,” Reno frowned.

“I know,” Tseng sighed. “Until then, we’ll just have to weather the storm.” He slipped a hand under Reno’s chin and drew closer to him, stealing a brief kiss.

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Things got worse before they got better. AVALANCHE was a thorn in the President’s side and he was determined to crush ‘em…literally. He called me into his office a week or so after Aerith got away and told me that Tseng went to “collect” her at her house in the slums. Then he ordered me to set a bomb on the main support pillar of the plate section over sector seven.

I couldn’t believe how far he was willing to go and it took everything I had to do my job. I felt kind of numb while I was doing it, man. I was about to flatten my old neighborhood. I called everyone I knew that still lived there and told them to get the hell out. I lied and told ‘em that AVALANCHE was making bomb threats, ‘cause that’s what the media was going to be saying when it was all over with. I was kind of thankful that my old auto shop was in sector five, but the house I grew up in was about to get crushed along with all the other houses and shops in that area, yo.

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Reno heard the gunfire beneath him as he set the timer on the bomb. He hesitated with his finger hovering over the activation button, struggling inwardly with himself.

~I’m a Turk now. This is just business, yo.~

His finger remained in place. No matter how much he told himself it was just a job, he kept imagining the destruction and the looks on the faces of the victims when the plate came crashing down.

~AVALANCHE is on its way to try and stop me. Maybe if I hold off they’ll get here in time and I can get out of this pickle by saying they stopped me before I could set the bomb off.~

His cellphone rang and he absently reached into his blazer for it. “Reno here,” he said after flipping it open.

“Reno, this is President Shinra,” said a familiar, hated voice. “Have you got the bomb set up?”

Reno swallowed and closed his eyes. “Yes, Sir.”

“Then activate it and get out of there. I’m getting reports that the terrorists are fighting their way past the guards on the pillar and we can’t let them stop the explosion. Tseng is on his way with the Cetra girl to pick you up in a helicopter. He’ll be arriving soon.”

“Yes, Sir.” Reno turned off the phone and replaced it in his pocket. He closed his eyes and pushed the activation button, wincing as it beeped and the digital numbers began to count down. He heard the sound of a chopper approaching and he turned and scanned the city for the source. He could see the ShinRa helicopter approaching from above sector six.

“What the hell you think you’re doin’!” Shouted a rough, deep male voice from the stairs. Reno turned and found himself facing a big black man, a curvy brunette woman and a familiar blonde guy. He was a little surprised to find out that Strife was a member of the insurgent group but it made a certain amount of sense, given the grudge he probably had against ShinRa.

“You’re too late, yo,” Reno said in a tone that was almost accusing, “This pillar’s going down and the sector’s getting flattened like a pancake.”

“We’re not letting that happen,” Cloud said with narrowed blue eyes, drawing his Buster Sword and advancing.

Reno glanced over his shoulder at the approaching helicopter and shrugged as he readied his EMR and fell into a fighting stance. “If you say so, Blondie. Let’s make this quick, man. I don’t have a lot of time to play.”

Cloud’s eyes shifted to the electricity dancing on the rod in Reno’s hand and the redhead raised it. “Wanna see how it works?” Reno challenged. Without waiting for a response, he leaped into the air and swung the weapon right at the surprised black man’s face. The big guy went down with a groan as the electric charge on the weapon stunned him and made him temporarily lose muscle control.

“Bastard,” cried the brunette girl. Reno saw stars as she kicked him in the head and he barely dodged Cloud’s swinging Buster sword.

“Just doing my job, toots,” Reno said in as casual a tone as he could muster. “My turn to tag you, yo.”

He started to do just that but Cloud’s sword arched down in front of him before he could finish the move and Reno was forced to dodge aside. Cloud reversed his stroke and the redhead went flying as he was struck in the ribs. The sword was dull-edged and designed more for blocking and bludgeoning than slicing, so thankfully the blow didn’t open up his skin. Instead, it cracked a couple of ribs. Reno staggered to his feet and coughed, staring at the blonde warily as he closed the distance.

“Shut the timer off,” Strife demanded as he advanced on the weakened Turk.

Reno shook his head. “No can do, Blondie. It’s rigged.” The helicopter circled around the pillar and a ladder was dropped out the side of it. The brunette girl tried to kick him again but Reno caught her with his EMR and she fell to the platform grid, twitching. Cloud launched another attack and Reno barely rolled aside in time. The blonde fighter meant business and the Turk was in no condition to keep it up. Reno caught hold of the trailing ladder as the chopper made another pass and he weakly held on while the men inside pulled him and the ladder up. Tseng stood at the open hatch and he helped haul Reno in.

On the platform, the black man had regained his muscle control and was taking aim at the chopper with his gun-arm, while the brunette—who hadn’t gotten a full charge from the EMR—struggled to her feet and tried to disarm the bomb. Tseng grabbed hold of Aerith, who was standing behind him. He dragged her into view of the terrorist group below.

“I wouldn’t shoot, unless you want to harm our special guest,” Tseng hollered over the sound of the rotaries. “There’s no point in trying to disarm the bomb, either. Any tampering will be more likely to set it off early than stop it.”

The black man lowered his weapon with a scowl and Aerith leaned forward and shouted to him. “Barret, she’s safe! Get out now while you still can!”

Tseng’s stress level finally reared its ugly head and he slapped the girl across the face before he was even aware of what he was doing. He stared in shock as she fell to her knees and looked up at him with wounded green eyes.

“Pilot, take us out of here now,” Tseng said without taking his eyes off of the girl he’d come to care about against his will. “We’re returning to Headquarters to give our report.”

Reno groaned as he was buckled into a seat. He looked down as the bomb began to go off and a sick feeling grew in his stomach and sat there like lead. He saw the big man with the gun arm grab hold of a sturdy construction wire that was attached to the railing of the platform. Cloud and the brunette girl with him both climbed onto the black man’s back and it was almost comical looking as the three of them clung to the wire. Reno felt some small relief when he saw them swing off of the pillar platform and toward the next sector before the plate above began to give away. With any luck, they’d make it out alive.

The pain in his ribs and the difficulty in breathing were making Reno start to pass out, but he heard the sounds of the plate section crashing into the sector and the screams of the innocent people before their lives were snuffed out. After that, he lost consciousness and blessedly heard no more.

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Reno woke up the next morning in an unfamiliar hospital room. He blinked and shifted in the bed, wincing at the tightness in his torso. He was shirtless and in a pair of hospital pants. He reached down and found that his torso was neatly wrapped in a bandage. There was no bone pain when he gingerly pressed on his ribs, which meant that the medical staff had used a cure materia on him to heal the fractures in the bones. From his peripheral vision he spotted someone sitting on the chair beside his bed and he turned his head.

Rufus’ gray eyes met his. “Welcome back, Reno. How do you feel?” the VP asked in an uncharacteristically gentle tone.

Reno shrugged. “Headquarters?”

Rufus was slightly puzzled at the one-word answer. “No, you’re in Junon. When I found out what happened I had you brought here so that you could recover in peace, without my father troubling you for information.” He reached out and smoothed a few vivid strands of hair out of the Turk’s eyes. “He never should have assigned you to a job like that, but knowing him it was on purpose…to test your loyalty to the company.”

Reno grimaced and nodded, closing his eyes. “Fat cats eat fire,” he muttered.

Rufus frowned fiercely at him before looking up at the doctor, who had just entered the room to check on his recovery. “I thought you said there was no head trauma,” the blonde accused. “He’s making no sense.”

The doctor also frowned and he looked at the Turk’s medical chart again. “He took a minor blow to the head in his fight, but the tests we ran indicated no signs of trauma.” He went to the other side of Reno’s bed and called his name. When the redhead looked up at him, he asked; “Can you count to ten, Reno?”

The Turk shrugged and counted, giving the man a look of faint annoyance. The doctor was satisfied with that and he questioned; “Tell me your name and rank in the organization, please.”

“Red,” answered the Turk, “Moogle in the Turks.”

The doctor bit his lip and nodded, while Rufus stared at Reno with alarm. “I see. Rest now…I’d like to have a word with the Vice President.” The doctor nodded at Rufus and walked out of the room. Rufus followed and as soon as the door was shut behind them, the doctor gave his diagnosis of Reno’s odd, jumbled speech.

“He’s suffering a condition commonly known as ‘Word Salad’, Mr. Vice President.”

Rufus peered back into the room through the little window on the door. “’Word Salad’,” he repeated. “Just what is that?”

“It’s not harmful,” the doctor assured him, “It’s normally a symptom of post traumatic stress. The mind can’t form coherent sentences because its struggling with a great burden. The death of a loved one, severe guilt, too much stress, depression or a traumatizing experience are all things that can cause it. It will go away eventually but I strongly recommend that you give the young man a vacation, so that he can recover at his own pace.”

“So his mind is intact?” Rufus pressed, “There’s no actual damage?”

“No,” the doctor assured him, “we’ll run more tests to be on the safe side, but I’m ninety-nine percent certain that his symptoms are from psychological scarring. Can you tell me what he was doing before he arrived here?”

Rufus stared at Reno through the glass, his eyes narrowing with anger at his father. “It’s classified,” he said in a low voice, “but I can at least confirm that it was something stressful. I want you to give him the best of care, doctor.”

“Of course,” the doctor agreed, feeling a shiver go down his spine as those cold eyes met his. “We’ll do everything in our power to help him recover as quickly as humanly possible. In the meantime, please consider my suggestion and keep him off the job until he’s ready to come back, Sir.”

Rufus nodded and went back into the room. Reno watched him approach and sit down. “I ain’t a rooster,” the redhead stated stubbornly.

Rufus couldn’t suppress a soft chuckle, guessing that his subordinate didn’t want to be babied. “Of course not,” he said. “For now, your orders are to relax and concentrate on getting better. No arguments.”

Reno sighed, realizing now that everything he tried to say came out as a senseless jumble of words. He stretched one palm out flat and made the motion of writing on it with his other hand, glancing up at his boss meaningfully. “The cheese has rhythm,” he grumbled.

Rufus was confused for a moment but he guessed what his lover was trying to say when he saw the motions he was making. “You want a pad of paper and a pen to write with?” he questioned.

Reno nodded, pressing his lips together with frustration at his mouth’s refusal to obey his mind’s commands.

Rufus stroked the Turk’s bright hair. “I’ll go and get them for you,” he promised before standing up and reaching for the TV remote. “Why don’t you find something to watch while I go and do that?”

Reno was embarrassed. He gave Rufus an apologetic look for being so demanding as he took the remote. He had no business bossing around the VP and he was surprised that Rufus was being so accommodating and patient with him. He saw the warmth in his boss’s eyes that was normally so well-hidden and he knew that Rufus was showing his affection in the only way he could.

“I don’t mind,” Rufus murmured. He glanced at the door to make sure there was nobody watching from outside before bending down to kiss the redhead softly. “You’ve paid for your loyalty to this company. The least I can do is give you the items you’ve requested.”

Reno gave him a sheepish grin as he left. The redhead sighed and flicked on the television, intending to find a comedy or something to watch. The tuner was already set to the morning news and Reno froze as a video of the ruined, burning sector was played on the screen behind the reporter.

“The terrorist group AVALANCHE is being blamed for this latest destruction,” the reporter announced, “but there’s some speculation over whether a group that claims to be trying to oppose ShinRa control would resort to killing innocent civilians to do it. Until now, AVALANCHE targeted Mako reactors and their actions never resulted in casualties. The body count continues to rise as sector seven burns. Reeve Tuesti, the head of the ShinRa Urban Development department, has sent in rescue workers to find any survivors and give them medical treatment—“

Reno abruptly switched the TV off and turned his face into the pillow as his throat ached and his vision blurred. He muffled the soft, choked sobs as well as he could and struggled to bring his guilt and emotions under control before Rufus returned.

~I’m sorry, Ma. You’ve got a murderer for a son.~

~****************************************~

“Word Salad”, they called it. Now ain’t that a bitch? For a blabbermouth like me, it was torture, yo. Rude came the next day with Ma and they visited me for a few hours. I had a feeling Ma didn’t really believe the story she was told that I had a minor concussion, but she never said it out loud and she just brought me some homemade soup and talked to me about happy things. Rude was quiet as usual but he kept looking at me through those glasses. He knew how bad I was hurting—I could tell.

Rude took Ma back to Midgar that night and told me he had some work to do. He couldn’t talk about it in front of her and he said he’d give me a call later to see how I was doing. Rufus came back and signed my release papers after Ma and Rude left. He took me to his hotel room and he’d already had some of my clothes brought from Midgar. He said as soon as I was feeling better, we’d go home and I’d be on paid vacation until I was ready to go back to work. He asked if there was anywhere I’d like to spend my vacation but I didn’t feel like I deserved anyplace nice, yo.

A couple of days later Rufus told me that AVALANCHE got caught trying to get Aerith out of Headquarters. Man, those people had balls, I had to give ‘em credit. Too bad for them though, ‘cause old man Shinra planned to have ‘em executed. I told Rufus (or should I say I wrote to Rufus) that I was ready to come back to work but he didn’t believe me. He said I could fly us both back to Midgar so I could get back into my routine a little but he wasn’t willing to put me on full duty yet.

I took what I could get, yo. I didn’t know how to explain to him that getting back to my normal work would help keep me distracted. I just did as I was told and we flew back to Midgar. He fooled around with me a little on the way, which was nice because it made me feel like things were getting back to the way they should be. Neither of us expected what came next, though.

~**************************************~

Reno shifted restlessly in his seat as his boss massaged his crotch and kissed him deeply. He was again thankful for the auto-pilot function and he whimpered against Rufus’ lips as the blonde’s touch brought him closer to orgasm. He wondered if his boss was going to open his pants or just make him mess himself in them, but he was too afraid of what would come out of his mouth if he tried to ask him about it. He sighed in relief when Rufus unzipped his fly and eased his throbbing, stiff sex out of his pants. They were nearly to Midgar and the last thing he wanted to do was walk into headquarters with a wet spot on his trousers.

“Mr. Vice President, do you copy?” came an unfamiliar voice over the radio.

Rufus grunted in annoyance and stopped petting Reno’s cock to adjust his headphone set. “I copy,” he answered. “What is it now?”

“Your presence is required as soon as you arrive, Sir,” the man said nervously. “It’s your father…he’s been killed.”

Rufus and Reno shared a look of astonishment and the redhead hastily tucked himself back into his pants and zipped his fly back up while Rufus adjusted the mic again.

“Killed? How? By whom?” Rufus questioned.

“Th-they’re saying it was Sephiroth. The fugitives we captured broke out of their holding cells and they’re attempting to escape. W-we tried to stop them but Jenova’s gotten out too and everything is in chaos! Palmer swears he saw Sephiroth with his own two eyes and—” There was a note of hysteria climbing in the man’s voice and Rufus cut him off.

“Calm down,” the blonde said firmly. “I’ll arrive at Headquarters shortly. Do what you can to retain the escaped criminals and locate Sephiroth and Jenova. Keep your head.”

“Keep my head!” The man began to laugh shrilly, “Jenova doesn’t have a head and it’s moving on its own!”

Rufus rolled his eyes. “Either get a hold of yourself or find someone that can,” he snapped, “I’ve got no use for hysterical employees. Find Heidegger and Scarlet and get them both on the job. I expect some answers when I arrive.”

“Y-yes sir,” the man on the other end answered in a slightly less hysterical tone.

Rufus ended the transmission and stared blankly ahead. “So, I suppose my ascension to the Presidency is complete now. That was rather abrupt.”

Reno wouldn’t have known what to say even if he’d been capable of coherent speech. He couldn’t tell whether his boss was in shock or just being coldly pragmatic. There was no love lost between he and his father but it had to affect him more than he let on to hear that the man had been murdered by a lunatic they’d thought dead for years.

“Have some dip?” Reno offered clumsily, his hesitant attempt to comfort the man turning into a snack offering. He swore quite coherently and flushed as Rufus smirked at him.

“An oddly appropriate offer, Fox. I suspect we’ll be having plenty of dip and other party snacks, once we’ve brought everything under control again.” Rufus patted the redhead on the arm. “Don’t worry. I’ve been preparing for this day for a very long time. It’s only fitting that he came to a violent end.”

Reno shivered at the casual cruelty in his lover’s voice. He hadn’t expected Rufus to get broken up about the death of his father but it always took him by surprise how quickly the blonde could go from caring and passionate to being utterly cold. Secretly, he’d always worried that one day Rufus would completely lose touch with his humanity and all that would remain would be the cool, tactical businessman.

~********************************************~

When we got to Headquarters, Rufus ordered me to keep hovering over the roof while he took care of Cloud Strife, who’d run out onto the roof from inside the building when he saw us arrive. I didn’t like it but the boss handled himself pretty well against Blondie, giving as good as he got until he had to back off and get back into the chopper with me. Cloud took off to join his friends and we listened to the transmission as ShinRa and the Turks tried to stop ‘em.

They got away, yo. To tell you the truth I was glad. ShinRa sent a mechanical attack unit after them along with some grunts and I saw them racing down the highway with all those bikes in pursuit and that big clunky Motorball unit bringing up the rear. I gotta tell ya, that Strife is a piece of work. I saw him taking out our guys left and right while driving his stolen motorcycle like a pro. I landed the chopper on the roof and the boss and I went into the building and found old man Shinra slouched over his desk, speared like a party H’orderve by a long, thin sword that was familiar to everyone.

Palmer was useless. The fatass kept babbling and blubbering until Rufus pimp-slapped him and told him to shut up and go home. Scarlet, Heidegger and Reeve were more helpful and Hojo was major pissed that Cloud’s gang took off with Aerith and one of his other favorite specimens, yo. What got me was how he acted about Jenova going missing…I’d swear the man was happy about that.

Rude and Tseng brought in a cleanup crew to get the mess taken care of and get the President ready for his funeral. Rufus was calm the whole time and it helped keep everyone else calm too. He gave orders like he’d always been in charge and nobody questioned him. He talked to Hojo and told him he wanted to know everything that he’d been keeping from him and he told me to take a week off and get back to him when I was feeling more like myself. Rude took me home and the last I heard of Cloud’s gang was that they broke the attack unit sent against ‘em and made it out of the city. The Turks were sent to follow them and Sephiroth, since they were all heading the same way according to reports.

As for me, it took a while for the word salad to go away. I worked out every day to build my strength back up and keep limber. Rude came with me when he could and he sparred with me. Rufus got all the answers he wanted—at least, he thought he did—and he told us about his father and Hojo’s plan to use Aerith to find the Promised Land. He was interested in carrying on the work himself, yo. He didn’t seem to believe in the place like his old man did but Rufus was the kind of guy that wanted answers, so he let Hojo keep on with his research.

A girl named Elena climbed the ranks of the Turks fast and she was assigned to me and Rude to learn the ropes. I guess she was okay but she babbled just as much as I usually did and it was usually about shit that wasn’t important. I’m pretty sure she had a crush on Tseng, too. Hell, who could blame her? He’d let his hair grow long like I suggested years ago and it looked great on him, hanging down his back, thick and shiny. I felt a little sorry for Elena because he didn’t have time to pay attention to her and he wasn’t interested in getting into a relationship with a woman, even if he did think she was pretty. I guess I was lucky he took time out to be with me when he could, yo.

It was hard for me to sit back and watch my fellow Turks doing all the work, yo. Usually I’d jump at the chance for a vacation but it was tough to keep my mind off of what I’d done. I found out that Don Corneo leaked the information about the pillar bomb to Strife and his pals and he skipped town right after that. Eventually the Turks were gonna have to find him and teach him a lesson, but that would have to come later, after I got better.

~*****************************************~

-To be continued