Day 28: Bus 1
Zelgadis was not happy, at all. Not that this was any change, but the events of the past few hours had given him more to angst about than usual. Nightshift had been dreadful: first he was attacked by a small green man and then covered in leeches, neither of which lead to warm fuzzy feelings
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Getting as comfortable as schoolbus seats allowed for, Rufus didn't respond to the question at first. His fingertips slid under his eye, remembering that he had been jumped only when the flicker of pain (pain unlike that of... better to not think on that) raced beneath his skin.
"Oh, that. The Schwarz member, Farfarello. They were herding us back towards our rooms, and he came out of nowhere. It took a few of the orderlies to get him off me. He's faster and stronger than I would have given him credit for. I didn't look in the mirror this morning, but injuries have a way of not last long in this place. By tomorrow, I imagine it will be gone."
He shrugged, trying to make the matter less than it was. He glanced up to Reno's face, meeting the Turk's eyes briefly before looking out the window.
"What happened last night? Did you find the cellar or weapons?"
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"I could hit him back, but somehow I see that as just setting off this cycle where we take turns trying to kill each other."
And around here, he really didn't need any more added danger to Rufus. If Farfarello would be satisfied with a few hits, then Reno wasn't quite willing to provoke him into doing something far worse to Rufus by reciprocating. Either they eliminated all of Schwarz or nothing. Doing it half and half would just be stupid.
In any case, he became distracted when Rufus spoke again. Even after the President glanced away, Reno continued to look at him, not too sure what to make of it.
"What, you don't know? 'Cause you were pretty damned lucid when you woke up. You gotta at least remember being in that hallway. You know, with all the screaming and bullets?"
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He didn't go any further than that, not willing to go indepth on why he chose not to engage Schwarz despite the fact that no one had ever struck Rufus Shinra and lived to brag about it except for Cloud Strife. He had his reasons, and that was good enough. With luck, they were the same as Reno's.
There was no twitch that gave Rufus away, but his speech fell back into the more formal tones that plainly said he was not wanting to talk about the subject.
"I do remember the hallway, the dead rats and the cold that was going away. I remember entering my room before dinner and sitting on my bed. The times between that are blank."
And that syringe with the single droplet of disease glinting on its tip.
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Let it lie. Good enough for him. They had bigger worries, anyway, than Schwarz. Far bigger. That this place was expanding all of a sudden was freaky. Over a week of nothing, and then out of nowhere, a basement popped up, and now this town, not a day or so later. Not to mention that creepy groaning or whatever last night. As if somebody was getting ready to make their move.
Reno studied Rufus for a second or two, his elbow on the window ledge and his head resting against his fingertips. Memory loss wasn't uncommon, but a complete blank out was a little weird. There were always flashes, no matter how vague. And logic aside, something felt --
Anyway.
"Look, whatever happened is your business," he said finally. "I'm not gonna push around for needless details. But I haven't heard of anyone walking out of there unscathed, so the fact that you stepped out without a scratch is pretty fucking worrisome. And I know they do things to people with lasting effects. So what I do need to know is whether you remember if they did anything that's putting you in danger even now. 'Cause keeping you alive? That is my business."
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Schuldig was less than pleased about winding up on a bus with, of all people, Rufus and Reno. Bad enough that he be trapped in a tin can full of patients, trapped in even closer quarters with people's thoughts than usual(and not even a pleasant place for it; public transportation was the reason he'd bought himself a magnificent sports car so he'd never have to put up with it); to be trapped with two people he wanted nothing to do with at the moment just made it all more aggravating.
However, he wasn't blind to the potential here. Rufus' thoughts were nervous, darting, just this side of frantic after the events of last night; what's more, he'd been thinking of Schuldig quite a bit the entire time. And now he had a secret, a secret he knew Schuldig was privy to, one he didn't want Schuldig to share...
And never had Schuldig had less reason to keep the president's secrets for him than he did now.
It was purely to make Rufus sweat that Schuldig took the seat across from him and his Turk, sprawling in his seat and spreading his long arms across the back in such a way that there was no room for anyone to sit beside him. The only good thing that had happened to him today was that he'd actually gotten a rather good selection of clothing from his nurse; the outfit he was in now was, aside from far more drab coloration, similar to the outfit he usually wore, a long grey trenchcoat (one that appeared to give him much broader shoulders than he actually possessed) over dark slacks. He'd even managed to sweet-talk the nurse into giving him a headband. The colors didn't really suit him, but what the hell.
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Why the hell did he keep thinking about that sickening disease?
Did.
Didn't.
Distracted with his own thoughts, Rufus hadn't given a whole lot of consideration to the expansion of Landel's. Even though they had only been there a week or more, it felt like a year.
"Then I must be a first or they did not get time to begin. If they did anything, I do not remember, and you could not help it anyways," he said, modulating his voice carefully to try to sound calm.
And there was the reason that he didn't want to make a move against Schwarz even if he would have had all his Turks as well as their weapons. Somehow he had guessed that Schuldig would turn up today. He hadn't been hoping, of course, but he had felt the telepath would appear. Schuldig's arrival also saved him from needing to make more of a reply. Instead of meeting Reno's gaze, he met Schuldig's instead, looking the telepath up and down. He had no idea that this was closer to how Schuldig usually looked. It was merely... different.
He could guess that Schuldig knew... knew something, something that his mind kept leaping away from and he let it. Encouraged it even. He never thought about the time he had spent buried alive in the rubble of Shin-Ra Tower, not knowing if anyone was coming to save him. Who would have saved him? The Turks had probably cut and run. His mind was used to playing the denial game, shrouding those secrets in darkness and not letting even him know them. Deep down, further in that dark pool of himself than Rufus ever cared to gaze, he had been terrified of the telepath. On the surface, he wanted someone to understand, to see. That cloaked part of him feared that same exposure, his sins brought to life. Why else would a man that so many thought never to make a move without precise planning and thought do something like jump into bed with Reno?
Or maybe it had been lust, plain and simple. Maybe it had been desire, purer than just sex. That deep core of himself didn't yield secrets easily.
"Good morning, Schuldig. What can we do for you?" he asked, cool and collect as always on the outside even as he did glance briefly to Reno before looking back to the telepath.
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Brilliant timing, as always.
Reno didn't react as he watched the telepath approach, only slouched even further in his seat in order to comfortably lean his head back. He didn't even have the energy to work up any sort of annoyance. Instead, he gave Schuldig a dispassionate wave in greeting.
Hell, maybe he was starting to become immune to Schuldig. Hard to say whether that was a good thing or not.
He caught the President's gaze, but said nothing. Yeah, so if anyone could tell him exactly what happened to Rufus, it was Schuldig, but Reno frankly didn't want to be told if it meant the telepath would start exploiting the whole thing in the process. And exploitation was the only reason why Schuldig would ever choose to say anything at all. Rufus was right; even if something had been done, it was far too late to do anything about it. Knowing would sate his curiosity, but that was about where it ended.
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Rufus must have been taking his cue from Reno on this, seeming unconcerned about Schuldig sitting with them. The telepath's expression didn't bode well for him (or anyone for that matter) but until Schuldig laid down what game he was playing, there wasn't much he could do. He turned back towards Reno, facing the Turk for the first time since he'd sat down.
"I take it that no progress was made then with the cellar. That is the last time I leave Wallace in charge. He was supposed to ensure that no matter what happened, you all would find where the cellar was and begin to explore it."
He frowned, leaning back in his seat and trying to find some sort of comfort there. The transports of the common man were not for him.
"Do you think this trip is just another trick, Reno, or is there a purpose behind it?"
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At any rate, if the telepath was here to purely annoy him, Reno would be damned if he was going to bite. The guy seemed set on staying, anyway. Anything he said would probably just make Schuldig more determined to stick around.
He glanced back at Rufus, unsurprised at the comment. Typical response from the President. "Only person who could've stopped me from going after you is Tseng, and even that's debatable."
Looking away, he shrugged a shoulder. "Hard to say. Maybe they just wanna let us know that even if we make it out of the institute, we still gotta deal with what's beyond that."
Was there anyone in town? Had to be, right? He could always try chatting up the civilians or whatever. They might just be as useless as the nurses, but who the hell knew. Maybe some of them would let up on something. Worth a shot, at least.
Unless this town was part of the institute. A little place they built specifically to fuck with the patients.
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That still sat badly with Rufus. While a part of him he would deny until he died had hoped that his Turks had been coming for him, the cold and analytical part of him had been near furious that the Turk had so blatantly risked himself. From what Rufus had heard, it was hard as hells to get into that hallway.
Forcing himself to calm before his thoughts were heard, Rufus nodded to Reno's thoughts on the town.
"It will help to know though if this place is on Gaia or not. Are we on what these ones call 'Earth' or the other planets we've heard about. Then again, this could be a huge daytime version of the Nightshift."
And that brought about a thought he'd rather not have had. Rufus glanced up to Schuldig, watching the telepath for a moment before speaking. Mentally, he weighed his odds of being laughed at or something sharp and cutting said. It didn't look good for him, but he went ahead with it anyways. Nothing ventured and all.
"Schuldig, how prepared are you for what might be there? Granted, minds may be spread out more than at the hospital, but what if there are people there and their thoughts are... I don't know... all screams or something else dangerous?"
Rufus had no idea where the rest of Schwarz was today, and in their absence, he'd have to take care of the telepath if such happened. There wasn't much he could do against a town full of minds, that leaving him with that hated helpless feeling. De-facto ruler of a world (or was) and he couldn't do anything.
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"With all due respect, boss," Reno said calmly, "you equally could've gotten yourself killed by trying to get Wallace to hold me back. Last I checked, it's kinda my job to keep you from dying, which was precisely what I intended to do last night. I'm paid to risk myself. Hell, I'm trained for it. I had four experienced fighters and one damn near perfect shot backing me up." He glanced at Rufus. "I know what I'm capable of. And I know what I'm doing."
Since when did Rufus believe the Turks were so easily killed, anyway? They'd been up against worst than a shadowy cloak and some overweight rats.
And normally, Reno never would've carried on such a conversation with a third party so blatantly listening in, but considering Schuldig could read his mind, privacy ceased to exist, making it a lot easier to openly say whatever the hell in front of the telepath.
As Rufus posed his question to Schuldig, Reno let his mind wander, only partially listening in on the conversation.
A huge daytime version of nightshift? Oh, yeah. Wouldn't that be a giggle. Though he doubted it. Not with the normal nurses around. No, if there was going to be anything sinister about this place, it would be in the fact that everything would appear too happy and normal. Reno was half-expecting to see a perfect little town with trimmed shrubs and sprinklers and soccer moms.
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Unfortunately, Schuldig was on the wrong side of the bus to get a view of the approaching town. So he simply looked out through someone else's eyes, marking the appearance of the town and doing his best to gauge just how long he had before they were close enough that his telepathy would start picking up anything from the place.
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Just who shot who around here? sat on the tip of his tongue before he jerked it back, checking the urge to draw blood with razored words. Those were the words that would surely mire him and Reno in another spat. It was far easier to listen to what Schuldig was saying and resist the urge to soothe his own wounded pride by striking back.
Besides, Reno did have a point. A small one.
"That doesn't change the fact that it would have been of greater benefit to all of us had you found out what was so special about the cellar versus trekking all the way upstairs with four experienced fighters and a near perfect shot who's talents were wasted. However... you are right. Your arena is protection, not mine."
For Rufus, that was what passed as agreement.
Flipping between two conversations was usually damned easy for Rufus. Business experience alone had taught him how to keep track of multiple things at once. The mild fever he had was what he blamed for struggling to keep up and pay attention to both men equally. Needless to say, Schuldig's news didn't sit well with him, nor did the knowledge that there was nothing any of them could do. He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips, trying to will some plan or plot to come to him.
There was always something that could be done. Except this time, there wasn't. How does one keep back a mental wave when they can't even sense it? Something did click finally.
"What if you were unconscious, Schuldig? Does it stop then? Or can you use another mind to shield yours?"
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Although what he would never quite tell Rufus was that the President's safety took precedent over everything else, without question, for the sole reason that if the President were dead, then there was simply no point in following his orders anymore. For his orders to be effective, they had to keep him alive...even if it meant defying his orders in the process. A bit of a catch-22, really, but there it was. This was especially true because Rufus had no heir, which meant the moment he died, the Turks pretty much ceased to exist. No one left to protect, after all.
He let Schuldig and Rufus's conversation buzz in the background, not interested enough to pay full attention. The scenery outside was fucking boring. Like they were in the middle of nowhere. Still, it was nice to actually see something other than the depressing walls of the institute day in and day out.
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Schuldig waved a hand dismissively. "Shy away from risk all you want, ShinRa, but sometimes you've got no choice. And whatever this fucking place plans on throwing at me, I say bring it on. When the inevitable comes to meet you, it's a bit more dignified to walk out and meet it halfway than to cringe in the corner until it arrives. Possibly it's the difference between someone who runs the risk of death or insanity simply by fact of existence and someone who's got an entire legion of people meant to keep him as far away from harm as possible, but I think I like my way better." He slouched in his seat, mentally doing calculations. How wide was his range, now? Probably less than half of his original mile and a half radius...it'd be awhile before he found out what Doyleton held in store for him. "Though I doubt you're capable of understanding that."
After a pause, he recalled that there had been a second part to Rufus' question. "As to shielding myself in someone else's mind, yes, that's technically possible," he acknowledged. "But not for you. It has to be a mind I'm almost as familiar with as my own, in order for me to be able to tell my thoughts and my host's apart. The only person who qualifies is Farfarello, since Crawford's closed off to me in that respect." Not that Schuldig intended to use Farfarello that way...unless, of course, Farfarello insisted upon it, which was a possibility. But he couldn't block out the sinister little thought that said a telepath that couldn't handle one measly village's worth of thoughts was one that was hardly worth the trouble of keeping sane in the first place.
"This is all theoretical, though. We don't know what's waiting for us there anyway."
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