[FF7-AU] Dance of Dragons 4
[FF7]: Dance of Dragons Chapter 4
Rating: PG - Chapter 4/? - Warnings: None
Pairings: To be announced
Post-game AU fic. Shinra has fallen, and the Turks are scattered. One of them,unable to let go of the past, returns four years later to Midgar.
For Myu.
Previous chapters
Chapter Summary: Where Reno flies, Rocket Town surprises, and Elena goes in search of a drink.
IV: Roads less taken
"So."
"I am completely serious when I say--"
"Relax. I'm not going to crash."
"Near crashes are just as bad, Reno."
"You're as bad as a mother, boss. Nag, nag, nag. Turn here. Slow down. Don't fly too fast. Wear your seatbelt. Eat your damn vegetables. Use protection."
"In certain circumstances, namely, with you at the controls--"
"You'll never find a safer pilot."
"The Junon air services has never had a pilot with a longer history of flight accidents."
"Wusses."
"Reno."
"Fine, boss."
Elena hid a smile as she listened to the other two in the front seats ribbing each other. Above them, the blades of the helicopter whirred into life, and Reno hummed, drumming his fingers against the flight stick. Despite of or perhaps because of Tseng's dry admonitions to observe some sort of safe flying, the 'chopper took off like a butterfly, jumping lightly and gracefully towards the sky.
Reno grinned as they smoothly picked up speed, banking and sweeping out across the ocean. He yelled some comment that Elena didn't catch, but Tseng rolled his eyes and settled back, crossing his arms across his chest.
"So what's the grand plan?" Reno asked, when they'd leveled out. They were surrounded by the ocean now, a field of blue rippled by white, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
"Wutai, ultimately," Tseng said. "I believe I told you that just yesterday."
"How are you going to find a way in? And don't you dare give me that 'If there's a will there's a way' Wutainese bullshit."
Don't you dare speak to him like that. The thought flashed across Elena's mind, but she bit it back before it could emerge. Reno was Reno was Reno, and technically the question of decorum was a bit iffy when the question of the existence of your entire organisation wasn't quite settled. She did, however, level a glare at the back of Reno's head.
"What if I say that there's no plan?" Tseng asked.
"I'd say that that's bullshit nonsense too."
"Honestly speaking, my plan is a little sketchy at this point. Are no flights allowed into Wutai at all?"
"Very few. Mostly for Wutainese to leave and enter the mainland. No way we'd get in. Especially not if anyone discovers that we're Shinra. We'd have to bust in, or sneak in, or... shit, I don't know."
"It'd be impossible to get in by boat, wouldn't it?" Elena asked.
"Well nigh," Tseng replied.
"For all that they hate us foreign devils, they sure like our technology," Reno snorted. "Last I heard they had the latest in Shinra radar tech, capable of detecting even a tiny rowboat from several thousand nautical miles off the coast. Next thing you know, it'll be torpedoes from the Wutai Submarine Division."
"There is no Wutai Submarine Division," Tseng said.
"What do you know? They're sneaky, these Wutainese bastards. Present company not exempted."
"I take that as a compliment."
"It is a compliment."
"In any case. Rocket Town is now the only port of call between the continent and Wutai, is it not?"
"Yeah. Maybe Elena can go seduce one of them Wutainese pilots, get hitched and--"
She kicked the back of his seat viciously, and Reno chuckled.
"But seriously," she said to Tseng. "You must have a plan."
Tseng said nothing.
"How could you not?" Elena insisted.
"She's right," Reno seconded. "For once."
"There are ways," Tseng said quietly. "Which neither of you need to know at this point. And which I would rather not resort to."
"Ooooh that sounds suspicious," Reno said. "But what happens if you buy it? What the hell do we do then?"
"Then the entire mission is a write off, and you are free to go."
"Sounds harsh."
"Director," Elena said, distressed. "But why?"
Tseng shook his head quietly.
"We'll just have to make sure that you don't die, then," Reno sighed.
The silence that settled over the cockpit this time was nowhere as calm and comfortable as the last. Elena bit her lip and returned into staring out of the window. Beneath them, miles of empty ocean spiralled away. The Shinra military divulged information strictly on a need-to-know basis, but the Turks weren't part of the military. It wasn't like Tseng to keep things from them. They were all cleared at the highest levels, after all.
He expects danger, she thought. He's worried about one of us getting caught and... what is it that's so important, so top secret that he can't tell us? What is it about whatever he knows that spells the success or the failure of this mission? What are we even looking for?
Reno glanced out of the window, and Elena found her eye caught by the black swish of his pony tail against his leather jacket.
What are we headed into? What is in Wutai that Tseng needs so badly? What are we searching for that he would risk life and limb ... that he would come and round up all of us in order to look for it?
She stared at Tseng's profile, shadowed somewhat by the bright sunlight pouring in from the window opposite. There was something here, something deeper than even she'd suspected when she had set off for Midgar another life time ago, with nothing more than a hope...
--
"Jaguar Foxtrot Gamma One, you are cleared for landing on pad seven."
"No problems, huh, boss?" Reno asked, as he angled in for landing.
"You're not on the ground yet," Tseng pointed out.
Reno shot back a reply that Elena missed as Rocket Town unfolded before them. The last time she had been here, it had been a tiny village in the shadow of Shinra 26. The last time she had been here it had been a quiet little place, a town that had lost its place in history when the launch of Shinra 26 had failed.
Now, town was the last thing she would call it.
Buildings stretched off into the horizon, stretching all the way out to the coast. There was a harbour now where there had been none before, and large cargo ships lurked out on the waves. But mostly, where there had once been a small airstrip, an airport now dominated their view -- multiple runways designed for large aircraft, helicopter pads lined up to the side, planes roaring off into the distance...
"What happened here?" she asked. "How... in four years...?"
"They're cheap buildings." Reno nodded at the houses they were passing. "Mostly of composite material. People have flocked here trying to get into Wutai, trying to find jobs... people who used to be from Nibelheim, from the Icicle Area... from Midgar. Rocket Town's come up, and come up fast. No one's quite sure exactly why... but it really looks set to be the next Midgar."
"Cid Highwind," Tseng murmured.
"That old geezer?"
"He went into the airship business, commissioning and building airships. He had the contacts -- former Shinra engineers, pilots... he was somewhat of a legend back in the day, and with the whole Meteor incident..."
"He couldn't have been responsible for all of this," Elena said. "I mean, it's just completely... just because of one person?"
"No. The whole closure of Wutai thing had a lot to do with it," Reno said. "Bet people came here and camped out. There were job opportunities. There were job opportunities created by people coming here. It is the major transport hub -- any flights to Wutai or to the Icicle Area leave from here. Not to mention the harbour. Chicken and egg, probably. Who knows whether it grew because people came here, or whether people came here because it grew."
"It's just... amazing."
"Yeah, the world's changed a lot in four years."
But this much? she thought, as Reno brought them in for landing. Did the fall of Midgar create this much turbulence throughout the world?
They touched down with a bump that rattled Elena's teeth, and caused Tseng to shoot Reno a sour look.
"Well, you didn't die or lose any limbs. Stop being such a pansy," Reno muttered.
"In any case," Tseng said, in the silence as the chopper's blades whirred to a stop. "This promises to be more dangerous than I anticipated."
"Danger is--" Reno started, but Tseng raised a hand, cutting him off.
"The contracts that you signed with the Department were signed with Shinra Company. Shinra Company no longer exists, and by extension, those contracts are no longing binding." He paused, not looking at either of them.
"...sir?" Elena said cautiously. "If you're asking..."
"I am going to Wutai," Tseng said. "You are not bound to follow me, not even by loyalty to that which we were before. I do not ask you to follow, but if you should, there will be no second chance to back out. From here on out, we are at war with the world. You are either with me, or you are not. There is no middle ground. Cliché as that may sound." He turned, looking sharply at Reno, who glanced away. Then that cutting gaze was on her, and try as she might, Elena found that she couldn't meet it.
"Think on it carefully," Tseng said. "Both of you have been through basic training. You know that to be a Turk is to be a Turk body, mind and soul. Nothing more, nothing less. And if you should choose to follow me, I ask for exactly that. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"Body, mind and soul, eh?" Reno said softly. "I haven't heard that phrase in a while."
What are we headed into? Elena wondered again.
"I will await your replies," Tseng said. "Think on it, but do not take too long." There was a click as he palmed the door release, and with a hiss of motion, was gone.
--
"Reno. Reno!"
Reno paused, turning back to look at her. "What is it?"
Elena jogged across the length of the tarmac, mentally cursing Reno's long stride that enabled him to take off and leave her scrambling to catch up.
"You know him better," she said without preamble. "What is he getting at?"
"He's pulling the old loyalty shtick."
"Is that all there is to it? I mean, surely he wouldn't say that if he wasn't expecting trouble..."
Reno stared out into the distance, hands lodged in his pockets.
"Senpai..."
"He's changed," Reno said.
"How? He doesn't--"
"Shut up and listen for once, rookie."
"Speak faster," she retorted, and Reno glanced over at her in surprise.
"You've changed too," he muttered. "In any case. The boss has changed more. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it."
"I ..." Isn't he the same? As professional, courteous as ever? As distant and as unreadable?
"I've never seen him so focused," Reno said. "Except..." he paused, and shook his head. "But that was a long time ago. But yeah. He's after something. He's not telling us what it is. There is no way in bleeding hell that his finding me at Junon was a fluke. I'd even say that it wasn't coincidence that you guys met at Midgar. And I want to know how the hell he's located Rude, because I'm damn sure he has, but I haven't been able to do that for the four bleeding years I've been searching."
"But what’s up? I mean... we're chasing after a trail that's years old and may not lead to anything at all. We're running around on the orders of a dead man, with no clue what's waiting for us at the end of the road... if there's anything at all."
Reno's eyes were narrowed, and the setting sun cast a glitter in their depths. "I don't know. My guess is as good as yours. But there's something worth chasing after. I just hope to hell that it's not more Planet destroying materia. I'm sick to death of planet destroying materia."
"So you're in with us?" Elena asked.
Reno glanced over at her. "You’re the one who’d better think about it, kiddo."
"What? You were the one who was sitting on the fence!"
He flicked at an invisible speck of dirt on his jacket, and scuffed a foot in the dirt. "At the end of the day," he said, slowly and reluctantly, "There isn't anywhere else for me to go. I've been with this damn organisation way too long." He gestured briefly over his shoulder. "That's all there is to life now. Just a chopper and the sky... and it gets old after a while. But you..."
"What about me?"
"You gotta make up your own mind. Don't let your feelings for him cloud your judgment."
"My... you knew?"
"It was written all over your face from day one, rookie," Reno said, but his tone was more gentle than she'd ever heard it. "I almost... well, nevermind that. But you've been with us for far less time. You had an education. You have family somewhere. You can still go back. You still have other options."
"That road..."
"There are very few roads that are truly closed. You were... you are a Turk. You can make things happen. The only question is... what you choose." He paused, waiting for her reply, a reply that was slow to come as she pondered the implications of his words. Silently, they fell into step, crossing the remaining distance towards the gates into the arrival area.
Reno paused before the doors that Tseng had headed through earlier. Half turned, and studied her carefully.
"What is it?" Elena asked.
"He didn't leave to give me time to think, you know," the other Turk said.
"I've already--" she started to say… then paused. No. Have I really? Am I really sure that this is what I want? To be a fugitive on the run forever? Realistically, we're never going to be what we once were. And as for ... the two of us. If that never happens... if it's just a hope, if it stays just a hope...
Reno clapped her on the shoulder. "Tell me if you need a drink. I feel like hitting up a few bars tonight."
"I will," she said softly, as he tugged open the doors and gestured for her to precede him.
--
There had been times in Kalm where she’d just broken down, gone into crying, screaming fits. Episodes where she had just flung things against the far wall, where she’d disappeared somewhere where she couldn’t hurt anyone and pulled out a globe of fire materia and torched everything to the ground.
Those sessions had gradually lessened, time healing the wounds slowly but surely. She’d stabilised, come through, found distractions, other things to focus on while the world turned and an interminable number of sun rises and sun sets winged past.
One day, she had pegged her new found distractions as just that… distractions, and that insidious thought had set off the entire avalanche that had seen her leaving Kalm in the end.
But she still remembered what it had felt like, four years ago, standing at the windows in Junon while the entire world went to hell. She still remembered, especially now, seated in a hotel room with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring moodily at the far wall and fingers itching to put a few bullets into it.
She had wanted to leave, by the end of it. She had wanted nothing more to do with Shinra, nothing more to do with this nightmare that they had unleashed upon the world. Tseng had been dead, or so they had all thought. The only thing that had made her job worthwhile while the world went up in flames had disappeared. Her mentor, her guiding star, fallen from his place in the sky. Suddenly, there had been nothing left, no reason to stay. They had rallied around Rufus, and he too had been taken from them, and they were just running through the sewers, trying to get away.
She remembered the bitterness she had felt that, about falling for nothing more than the hope of a hope. It had seemed so real, that time before Tseng had departed for the Temple of the Ancients… him actually inviting her out to dinner. But nothing had ever come of that, and perhaps she was too busy being caught in the hope of hope yet again to realise that nothing would ever come of this either.
He had rejected her, she thought. Gently, carefully, with all the finesse that it took to shoot someone straight through the heart and kill them before they even registered they’d been shot. He had always shot to kill, after all.
“Oh hells,” she swore softly, telling herself that she wasn’t going to cry, wasn’t going to break down yet again, not over this stupid issue, not over a dream long gone and buried and dead.
But wasn’t that why she had gone to Midgar? Chasing a dream that didn’t-
--no.
No.
She straightened, taking a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair. It was four years later and she wasn’t the girl she had once been. It was four years later and she had learned to live for herself. She had gone to Midgar because she had realised something terribly, fundamentally important.
It wasn’t just Tseng. It was the Turks. She had thought that it had been hell back then, but in reality, that had been the only thing that had kept her together. That she had been part of the team doing something about the crisis, instead of one of those just running away. She had been part of a team that did more than just get by from day to day, and she had tried that kind of lifestyle in Kalm and it hadn’t worked.
She had run away, and found that there was no where to run to.
Tseng came back. He came back, and he’s going on, and I don’t think it ever occurred to him to ask why. He’s chasing because that’s what he does… that’s what we do. Because everyone carves a niche for themselves in this world, and this is ours, and Reno’s wrong. I am a Turk, and I can make things happen… but when the choice is between the easy way and the hard way, there is only one choice that a Turk can make.
She was getting a headache. It was gnawing at the base of her skull, the kind of dull throb that she had come to associate with literally or figuratively beating her head against a dead end. It wasn’t as if any of these arguments were new. She was just running across worn tracks that she had run across for four years now. And it was pathetic, the way she was just sitting here being miserable over it all over again.
A quick glance across the room revealed no bar, no fridge, nothing except the tap from the little washstand if she wanted a drink. No help there. A quick look through her wallet revealed a few notes… too few, but perhaps Tseng would actually discuss the issue of remuneration with them later.
You can’t get rid of me, she thought at him, with a touch of viciousness. No easy way out for you, sir.
She paused in front of the mirror to pull her jacket on and set her hair in order. Tucked the pistol into its concealed holster inside the jacket, snapped on the materia bracelet, and checked on the knives in her boot sheathes. Gave the PHS a once over before she slipped it into a pocket.
The door banged loudly behind her as she set off down the hallway in search of Reno, and a drink, in that order.
--
To be continued
Rating: PG - Chapter 4/? - Warnings: None
Pairings: To be announced
Post-game AU fic. Shinra has fallen, and the Turks are scattered. One of them,unable to let go of the past, returns four years later to Midgar.
For Myu.
Previous chapters
Chapter Summary: Where Reno flies, Rocket Town surprises, and Elena goes in search of a drink.
IV: Roads less taken
"So."
"I am completely serious when I say--"
"Relax. I'm not going to crash."
"Near crashes are just as bad, Reno."
"You're as bad as a mother, boss. Nag, nag, nag. Turn here. Slow down. Don't fly too fast. Wear your seatbelt. Eat your damn vegetables. Use protection."
"In certain circumstances, namely, with you at the controls--"
"You'll never find a safer pilot."
"The Junon air services has never had a pilot with a longer history of flight accidents."
"Wusses."
"Reno."
"Fine, boss."
Elena hid a smile as she listened to the other two in the front seats ribbing each other. Above them, the blades of the helicopter whirred into life, and Reno hummed, drumming his fingers against the flight stick. Despite of or perhaps because of Tseng's dry admonitions to observe some sort of safe flying, the 'chopper took off like a butterfly, jumping lightly and gracefully towards the sky.
Reno grinned as they smoothly picked up speed, banking and sweeping out across the ocean. He yelled some comment that Elena didn't catch, but Tseng rolled his eyes and settled back, crossing his arms across his chest.
"So what's the grand plan?" Reno asked, when they'd leveled out. They were surrounded by the ocean now, a field of blue rippled by white, stretching out as far as the eye could see.
"Wutai, ultimately," Tseng said. "I believe I told you that just yesterday."
"How are you going to find a way in? And don't you dare give me that 'If there's a will there's a way' Wutainese bullshit."
Don't you dare speak to him like that. The thought flashed across Elena's mind, but she bit it back before it could emerge. Reno was Reno was Reno, and technically the question of decorum was a bit iffy when the question of the existence of your entire organisation wasn't quite settled. She did, however, level a glare at the back of Reno's head.
"What if I say that there's no plan?" Tseng asked.
"I'd say that that's bullshit nonsense too."
"Honestly speaking, my plan is a little sketchy at this point. Are no flights allowed into Wutai at all?"
"Very few. Mostly for Wutainese to leave and enter the mainland. No way we'd get in. Especially not if anyone discovers that we're Shinra. We'd have to bust in, or sneak in, or... shit, I don't know."
"It'd be impossible to get in by boat, wouldn't it?" Elena asked.
"Well nigh," Tseng replied.
"For all that they hate us foreign devils, they sure like our technology," Reno snorted. "Last I heard they had the latest in Shinra radar tech, capable of detecting even a tiny rowboat from several thousand nautical miles off the coast. Next thing you know, it'll be torpedoes from the Wutai Submarine Division."
"There is no Wutai Submarine Division," Tseng said.
"What do you know? They're sneaky, these Wutainese bastards. Present company not exempted."
"I take that as a compliment."
"It is a compliment."
"In any case. Rocket Town is now the only port of call between the continent and Wutai, is it not?"
"Yeah. Maybe Elena can go seduce one of them Wutainese pilots, get hitched and--"
She kicked the back of his seat viciously, and Reno chuckled.
"But seriously," she said to Tseng. "You must have a plan."
Tseng said nothing.
"How could you not?" Elena insisted.
"She's right," Reno seconded. "For once."
"There are ways," Tseng said quietly. "Which neither of you need to know at this point. And which I would rather not resort to."
"Ooooh that sounds suspicious," Reno said. "But what happens if you buy it? What the hell do we do then?"
"Then the entire mission is a write off, and you are free to go."
"Sounds harsh."
"Director," Elena said, distressed. "But why?"
Tseng shook his head quietly.
"We'll just have to make sure that you don't die, then," Reno sighed.
The silence that settled over the cockpit this time was nowhere as calm and comfortable as the last. Elena bit her lip and returned into staring out of the window. Beneath them, miles of empty ocean spiralled away. The Shinra military divulged information strictly on a need-to-know basis, but the Turks weren't part of the military. It wasn't like Tseng to keep things from them. They were all cleared at the highest levels, after all.
He expects danger, she thought. He's worried about one of us getting caught and... what is it that's so important, so top secret that he can't tell us? What is it about whatever he knows that spells the success or the failure of this mission? What are we even looking for?
Reno glanced out of the window, and Elena found her eye caught by the black swish of his pony tail against his leather jacket.
What are we headed into? What is in Wutai that Tseng needs so badly? What are we searching for that he would risk life and limb ... that he would come and round up all of us in order to look for it?
She stared at Tseng's profile, shadowed somewhat by the bright sunlight pouring in from the window opposite. There was something here, something deeper than even she'd suspected when she had set off for Midgar another life time ago, with nothing more than a hope...
--
"Jaguar Foxtrot Gamma One, you are cleared for landing on pad seven."
"No problems, huh, boss?" Reno asked, as he angled in for landing.
"You're not on the ground yet," Tseng pointed out.
Reno shot back a reply that Elena missed as Rocket Town unfolded before them. The last time she had been here, it had been a tiny village in the shadow of Shinra 26. The last time she had been here it had been a quiet little place, a town that had lost its place in history when the launch of Shinra 26 had failed.
Now, town was the last thing she would call it.
Buildings stretched off into the horizon, stretching all the way out to the coast. There was a harbour now where there had been none before, and large cargo ships lurked out on the waves. But mostly, where there had once been a small airstrip, an airport now dominated their view -- multiple runways designed for large aircraft, helicopter pads lined up to the side, planes roaring off into the distance...
"What happened here?" she asked. "How... in four years...?"
"They're cheap buildings." Reno nodded at the houses they were passing. "Mostly of composite material. People have flocked here trying to get into Wutai, trying to find jobs... people who used to be from Nibelheim, from the Icicle Area... from Midgar. Rocket Town's come up, and come up fast. No one's quite sure exactly why... but it really looks set to be the next Midgar."
"Cid Highwind," Tseng murmured.
"That old geezer?"
"He went into the airship business, commissioning and building airships. He had the contacts -- former Shinra engineers, pilots... he was somewhat of a legend back in the day, and with the whole Meteor incident..."
"He couldn't have been responsible for all of this," Elena said. "I mean, it's just completely... just because of one person?"
"No. The whole closure of Wutai thing had a lot to do with it," Reno said. "Bet people came here and camped out. There were job opportunities. There were job opportunities created by people coming here. It is the major transport hub -- any flights to Wutai or to the Icicle Area leave from here. Not to mention the harbour. Chicken and egg, probably. Who knows whether it grew because people came here, or whether people came here because it grew."
"It's just... amazing."
"Yeah, the world's changed a lot in four years."
But this much? she thought, as Reno brought them in for landing. Did the fall of Midgar create this much turbulence throughout the world?
They touched down with a bump that rattled Elena's teeth, and caused Tseng to shoot Reno a sour look.
"Well, you didn't die or lose any limbs. Stop being such a pansy," Reno muttered.
"In any case," Tseng said, in the silence as the chopper's blades whirred to a stop. "This promises to be more dangerous than I anticipated."
"Danger is--" Reno started, but Tseng raised a hand, cutting him off.
"The contracts that you signed with the Department were signed with Shinra Company. Shinra Company no longer exists, and by extension, those contracts are no longing binding." He paused, not looking at either of them.
"...sir?" Elena said cautiously. "If you're asking..."
"I am going to Wutai," Tseng said. "You are not bound to follow me, not even by loyalty to that which we were before. I do not ask you to follow, but if you should, there will be no second chance to back out. From here on out, we are at war with the world. You are either with me, or you are not. There is no middle ground. Cliché as that may sound." He turned, looking sharply at Reno, who glanced away. Then that cutting gaze was on her, and try as she might, Elena found that she couldn't meet it.
"Think on it carefully," Tseng said. "Both of you have been through basic training. You know that to be a Turk is to be a Turk body, mind and soul. Nothing more, nothing less. And if you should choose to follow me, I ask for exactly that. Nothing more. Nothing less."
"Body, mind and soul, eh?" Reno said softly. "I haven't heard that phrase in a while."
What are we headed into? Elena wondered again.
"I will await your replies," Tseng said. "Think on it, but do not take too long." There was a click as he palmed the door release, and with a hiss of motion, was gone.
--
"Reno. Reno!"
Reno paused, turning back to look at her. "What is it?"
Elena jogged across the length of the tarmac, mentally cursing Reno's long stride that enabled him to take off and leave her scrambling to catch up.
"You know him better," she said without preamble. "What is he getting at?"
"He's pulling the old loyalty shtick."
"Is that all there is to it? I mean, surely he wouldn't say that if he wasn't expecting trouble..."
Reno stared out into the distance, hands lodged in his pockets.
"Senpai..."
"He's changed," Reno said.
"How? He doesn't--"
"Shut up and listen for once, rookie."
"Speak faster," she retorted, and Reno glanced over at her in surprise.
"You've changed too," he muttered. "In any case. The boss has changed more. Don't tell me you haven't noticed it."
"I ..." Isn't he the same? As professional, courteous as ever? As distant and as unreadable?
"I've never seen him so focused," Reno said. "Except..." he paused, and shook his head. "But that was a long time ago. But yeah. He's after something. He's not telling us what it is. There is no way in bleeding hell that his finding me at Junon was a fluke. I'd even say that it wasn't coincidence that you guys met at Midgar. And I want to know how the hell he's located Rude, because I'm damn sure he has, but I haven't been able to do that for the four bleeding years I've been searching."
"But what’s up? I mean... we're chasing after a trail that's years old and may not lead to anything at all. We're running around on the orders of a dead man, with no clue what's waiting for us at the end of the road... if there's anything at all."
Reno's eyes were narrowed, and the setting sun cast a glitter in their depths. "I don't know. My guess is as good as yours. But there's something worth chasing after. I just hope to hell that it's not more Planet destroying materia. I'm sick to death of planet destroying materia."
"So you're in with us?" Elena asked.
Reno glanced over at her. "You’re the one who’d better think about it, kiddo."
"What? You were the one who was sitting on the fence!"
He flicked at an invisible speck of dirt on his jacket, and scuffed a foot in the dirt. "At the end of the day," he said, slowly and reluctantly, "There isn't anywhere else for me to go. I've been with this damn organisation way too long." He gestured briefly over his shoulder. "That's all there is to life now. Just a chopper and the sky... and it gets old after a while. But you..."
"What about me?"
"You gotta make up your own mind. Don't let your feelings for him cloud your judgment."
"My... you knew?"
"It was written all over your face from day one, rookie," Reno said, but his tone was more gentle than she'd ever heard it. "I almost... well, nevermind that. But you've been with us for far less time. You had an education. You have family somewhere. You can still go back. You still have other options."
"That road..."
"There are very few roads that are truly closed. You were... you are a Turk. You can make things happen. The only question is... what you choose." He paused, waiting for her reply, a reply that was slow to come as she pondered the implications of his words. Silently, they fell into step, crossing the remaining distance towards the gates into the arrival area.
Reno paused before the doors that Tseng had headed through earlier. Half turned, and studied her carefully.
"What is it?" Elena asked.
"He didn't leave to give me time to think, you know," the other Turk said.
"I've already--" she started to say… then paused. No. Have I really? Am I really sure that this is what I want? To be a fugitive on the run forever? Realistically, we're never going to be what we once were. And as for ... the two of us. If that never happens... if it's just a hope, if it stays just a hope...
Reno clapped her on the shoulder. "Tell me if you need a drink. I feel like hitting up a few bars tonight."
"I will," she said softly, as he tugged open the doors and gestured for her to precede him.
--
There had been times in Kalm where she’d just broken down, gone into crying, screaming fits. Episodes where she had just flung things against the far wall, where she’d disappeared somewhere where she couldn’t hurt anyone and pulled out a globe of fire materia and torched everything to the ground.
Those sessions had gradually lessened, time healing the wounds slowly but surely. She’d stabilised, come through, found distractions, other things to focus on while the world turned and an interminable number of sun rises and sun sets winged past.
One day, she had pegged her new found distractions as just that… distractions, and that insidious thought had set off the entire avalanche that had seen her leaving Kalm in the end.
But she still remembered what it had felt like, four years ago, standing at the windows in Junon while the entire world went to hell. She still remembered, especially now, seated in a hotel room with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring moodily at the far wall and fingers itching to put a few bullets into it.
She had wanted to leave, by the end of it. She had wanted nothing more to do with Shinra, nothing more to do with this nightmare that they had unleashed upon the world. Tseng had been dead, or so they had all thought. The only thing that had made her job worthwhile while the world went up in flames had disappeared. Her mentor, her guiding star, fallen from his place in the sky. Suddenly, there had been nothing left, no reason to stay. They had rallied around Rufus, and he too had been taken from them, and they were just running through the sewers, trying to get away.
She remembered the bitterness she had felt that, about falling for nothing more than the hope of a hope. It had seemed so real, that time before Tseng had departed for the Temple of the Ancients… him actually inviting her out to dinner. But nothing had ever come of that, and perhaps she was too busy being caught in the hope of hope yet again to realise that nothing would ever come of this either.
He had rejected her, she thought. Gently, carefully, with all the finesse that it took to shoot someone straight through the heart and kill them before they even registered they’d been shot. He had always shot to kill, after all.
“Oh hells,” she swore softly, telling herself that she wasn’t going to cry, wasn’t going to break down yet again, not over this stupid issue, not over a dream long gone and buried and dead.
But wasn’t that why she had gone to Midgar? Chasing a dream that didn’t-
--no.
No.
She straightened, taking a deep breath, running her fingers through her hair. It was four years later and she wasn’t the girl she had once been. It was four years later and she had learned to live for herself. She had gone to Midgar because she had realised something terribly, fundamentally important.
It wasn’t just Tseng. It was the Turks. She had thought that it had been hell back then, but in reality, that had been the only thing that had kept her together. That she had been part of the team doing something about the crisis, instead of one of those just running away. She had been part of a team that did more than just get by from day to day, and she had tried that kind of lifestyle in Kalm and it hadn’t worked.
She had run away, and found that there was no where to run to.
Tseng came back. He came back, and he’s going on, and I don’t think it ever occurred to him to ask why. He’s chasing because that’s what he does… that’s what we do. Because everyone carves a niche for themselves in this world, and this is ours, and Reno’s wrong. I am a Turk, and I can make things happen… but when the choice is between the easy way and the hard way, there is only one choice that a Turk can make.
She was getting a headache. It was gnawing at the base of her skull, the kind of dull throb that she had come to associate with literally or figuratively beating her head against a dead end. It wasn’t as if any of these arguments were new. She was just running across worn tracks that she had run across for four years now. And it was pathetic, the way she was just sitting here being miserable over it all over again.
A quick glance across the room revealed no bar, no fridge, nothing except the tap from the little washstand if she wanted a drink. No help there. A quick look through her wallet revealed a few notes… too few, but perhaps Tseng would actually discuss the issue of remuneration with them later.
You can’t get rid of me, she thought at him, with a touch of viciousness. No easy way out for you, sir.
She paused in front of the mirror to pull her jacket on and set her hair in order. Tucked the pistol into its concealed holster inside the jacket, snapped on the materia bracelet, and checked on the knives in her boot sheathes. Gave the PHS a once over before she slipped it into a pocket.
The door banged loudly behind her as she set off down the hallway in search of Reno, and a drink, in that order.
--
To be continued