Edge, Sunday Afternoon
Kadaj
"Mother," Kadaj said, desperately. The building caught fire beyond him, the annoying President was spraying bullets at him, but the only thing Kadaj cared about was Mother, falling over the edge in a small black box. Mother. Mother. Mother.
He dove off the building, arms outstretched, to follow the President down. The fall wouldn't kill him. And at the end, Mother Mother Mother Mother.
Reno
Things weren't going well. Things were going downright rotten, actually, and Reno and Rude were both catching their breath and trying to figure out what the hell to do next, when an explosion from above drew their attention upward.
Upward, where they could see two figures falling downward, one in black, and one in white, framed by the flames and sending off little pings of gunfire after the Remnant.
"Sir, no!"
Reno and Rude, people had speculated, often thought with one brain between them. At this particular moment, they were protesting together, in one voice, as well.
ShinRa Power itself was falling again, and taking everything they stood for as Turks along with it.
Rufus
The ground was quickly coming up toward him, and Kadaj had moved past him in their freefall, getting closer to his prize.
Rufus kept his gun aimed, twisting about midair to continue firing, first at the Remnant, and then at the case containing Jenova's head. If he could hit it, push it farther ahead, just keep it out of his grasp...
A bullet caught the box, ripped through it, cause it to tumble even more wildly through the air than before, and the ground was right there.
Unlike the moment the ShinRa building had fallen, two years ago, Rufus didn't close his eyes, or make any motion to hide his face.
He was going to meet his end head-on, this time.
Elena
Steady ... steady ... one chance at this, no room for error, a half second in the wrong direction and their nets wouldn't cross, and the President would die.
No pressure.
There. As one, two guns fired, two nets shot into place, and Rufus Shinra's body was caught by a webbed V of mesh fiber.
Elena allowed herself one small celebratory Hell yes before scrambling to the side of the building. Now, they had to get him down.
Kadaj
Kadaj heard a ruffling sound and a soft thump from behind him as his hands closed over the box. The box the box the box Mother.
He landed crouched on his feet, one arm down to steady himself, and before he was balanced it was up, brushing over the box in his arms. Mother?
A strange green liquid dripped from the shattered corner that the President had shot. When it landed on his gloves, he knew.
Mother.
Kadaj raced to his bike. His. And no one could take her away.
Cloud
Cloud had barely finished off the Bahamut when he noticed Rufus and a Remnant in a building across the city. Not Good. It hadn't taken him long to jump off the building and start up his bike. From there, he just opened the throttle and laid on the speed.
He wasn't thinking. There wasn't TIME to think. He looked up, and saw Rufus falling, and Kadaj falling, and something else falling -- something else that HAD to be Jenova, and Kadaj was going to get it.
The motorcycle was already going as fast as it could, but Cloud would have coaxed more speed out of it if he could have. He felt like he somehow managed to, anyway. But it wasn't enough. He wasn't going to make it in time.
Reno
Every now and again, there would be a series of events too chaotic and difficult to follow that even Reno, fastest of the Turks, would have to take a few moments to figure out what the hell had just happened.
Okay. Rufus was falling. And then Rufus wasn't falling. And then Kadaj was on the ground beside him. And then Kadaj wasn't. And then Cloud went zooming past. And who the hell sent that net? There wasn't anybody there with net gu-
....
HOLY SHIT. BEST WORST DAY EVER.
Reno was now making a beeline for the huge drop-sheet that substituted for an exterior wall nearby. Climbing time, again!
Reno
Up the wall, up the wall, and over the freaking edge, and Reno was looking about like a madman, then, doing a roll-call in his head.
Rufus? Present. Tseng and Elena?
Holy shit. Present.
Reno was now stalking toward the nearest person on the roof, his hands in fists and his teeth clenched. Elena. The rookie.
Oh, she was gonna get it.
Elena
Rufus was dusting himself off as if nothing happened, and Tseng was gathering up the nets, which meant Elena had absolutely no excuse to run the other direction. Dammit.
She squared her shoulders and kept her eyes firmly on Reno, who was about to tear a strip off her and tell her all the ways she'd completely screwed this mission up.
She was going to take it. Patiently. Anything he said. He might even have thought of one or two she'd missed.
And then when he was good and finished, she'd tell him he was right about everything and maybe they'd let her quit. Because she was just the stupid, clueless rookie, and she was a liability. At least she hadn't gotten anyone killed. She hoped that counted for something.
"Reno," she said. It was almost calm. If you squinted.
Reno
"Elena," Reno said, the name coming out as a rough bark as his voice caught halfway. He took a breath. Squared his shoulders. "Rookie."
And that would be where Reno of the Turks threw his arms around the rookie and squeezed her so freaking hard it was a miracle her head didn't fly off.
"Don't you ever fucking scare me like that again."
Was he shaking? He was shaking. Screw it. The rookie and the boss were back from the dead, and he'd left them behind. And dammit, he wasn't gonna cry, here. Now was a bad freaking time to get the sniffles, Reno.
Elena
She was in a deathgrip before she knew what was happening, and her breath caught and ... maybe he was Turk enough not to cry, but she wasn't. She was going to try to keep her sniffles to a minimum. It looked unprofessional, even for an idiot rookie.
Somehow, when he said 'rookie' that last time, it didn't seem like a cut.
"Sorry," she said. It was muffled by her face being smashed into his jacket, but he'd probably get the gist of it anyway. "I messed up, and I was so scared."
She couldn't believe she was telling Reno that.
She couldn't believe Reno was hugging her, either.
Reno
"You were scared?" Reno gave her another squeeze- he had to, just to be damn sure that she was real and right there and alive- and then eased off somewhat to give the girl some air.
He had ashes or dust or fried-Bahamut-fallout or something in his eye. That's why he was wiping at it. Shut up.
"You got the head to me, you went back for Tseng, you did all you could, and now you're here. You were amazin' back there, yo."
Amazing, and stupid, and holy shit, the rookie was alive.
Elena
"We got rescued," she explained. "Vincent. That weird guy in a cloak that hangs out with Cloud. I think he and Tseng know each other."
Beyond just him being one of those people who were always around Cloud. Like that bartender Rude liked and one of Reeve's Cait Siths.
The rest was low enough she barely heard it herself. "I don't think I'm cut out for this Turk job."
There. She'd admitted it. Finally.
Reno
Reno's expression went entirely flat for a moment, as Elena's words sank in. He had to pause, formulate a response, and take a breath before he could reply.
"Oh, you're at that point now, huh?" He offered her a bit of a tentative smile. His hair hurt and he hadn't slept in days. And two Turks were back from the dead. He was allowed to smile, even a little. "Been a long time since I said the same thing 'bout me, zoto."
His hands were going into his pockets, and he was looking anxiously at Tseng. Kind of itching to punch him in the face for getting his dumb ass caught, or something.
"You know you're fit to be a Turk when you actually survive long enough to have doubts about yourself, Rookie."
He was gonna turn, now. Let her chew on that for a bit. Go and freak out at Tseng, because Shiva knew he needed to, right now.
Rude
There was a Rude behind him, and he stepped forward and loomed over Elena, looking her over from head to toe. Maybe they ought to have some sort of ceremony for this, the moment you really became a Turk. ...Nah. A ceremony would miss the fucking point.
"...What he said," Rude grunted, giving her a nod.
Elena
Elena nodded back. "Rude. Glad you're okay."
She almost teased him, about not hugging her. Maybe it was okay to tease them, now. The air was different.
Rude
Okay, maybe a little ceremony. He took off his shades and pressed them into her hand. "Here," he told her. "You've earned them." Then he looked her square in the eyes. "Don't you ever scare Reno like that again," he told her.
Hey, emotions were hard, okay?
Elena
Putting them on meant she could cover her own eyes, which were threatening to get misty again. Still a rookie. Working on it.
"I won't," she said. "If he hugs me like that again, I might crack a rib."
Rude
Rude's own eyes were pretty misty, and he didn't trust himself to do more than nod and grunt in response. Then he pulled out another pair of shades and put them on. If today went on any longer, he was going to run out of spares.
Rude
Rude noticed movement out of the corner of his eye, and turned to see Reno's friends running up. "Looks like the... cavalry's arrived," he said.
Rikku
"We bagged a dragon, that means we rock," Rikku said, looking breathlessly at the crew of people standing around. More Turk uniforms? "Who are ..."
Tseng
Tseng would not relate how grateful he was that Reno, Rude and the President were still alive. He was a Turk; such things were unseemly.
"Rikku," he said, nodding to the girl, and once each to her companions. "Romeo and Dōjima, I believe. I wondered if you might come."
He had, of course, files on each of them. He had insisted on as much, once he realized that Reno's connections at the school were important to him. It had not occurred to him before that they might prove helpful.
Romeo
"I'm at a disadvantage, then," Romeo said. He wasn't at his best -- the fight had sapped his reserves -- but he was trying his hardest not to let that show. "I know not your name, so I could not wonder if you would be here."
He nodded his head in a slight bow. "It is, of course, a pleasure to meet you."
Dōjima
Yurika stepped closer to Romeo and lay one hand at the small of his back. Suit meant Turk, so they probably weren't allowed to annoy the man.
Yet.
"Hai. Hajimemashite, douzo yoroshiku...onamae wa?" Dōjima said sweetly. If she had to play nice, she would do it her way.
Tseng
Ah yes. Reno's reports had mentioned that Dōjima spoke something that could very well be Wutai.
Tseng, fortunately, happened to hail from Wutai, originally.
"Watashi no namae wa Tseng desu," he answered, his tone... Almost bored at the girl's attempt to throw him off, really. "A pleasure."
Reno had, alas, failed to mention how... charming his friends were, it would seem.
Dōjima
It was a credit to her training that Dōjima didn't so much as blink. Instead, she burst out laughing.
"Oh, I like him," she announced. "You didn't mention that your boss actually had a sense of humor, Red."
Rikku
"Or that he was ... alive," Rikku said, sending a nervous look at Reno. Reno hadn't known, or ... Reno knew, but couldn't tell her?
Reno
Reno was gonna attempt to quash his sheepish sort of smile before it overthrew his entire face.
He was gonna fail at it.
"Uh. Guys. This is Tseng? My boss? And that's Elena, the rookie? Apparently they ain't dead." A pause. "I ever mention Turks are real hard to kill?"
They were!
Romeo
"How fortunate for all of us," Romeo said, sounding as if he meant it. "And dozo yoroshiku, Tseng and Elena."
He even pronounced the Japanese right.
Elena
So Reno had new friends? Tseng seemed to know them. Elena was gonna yell, later, about being left out of the loop. Again.
"Hi," she said, taking off her sunglasses and placing them in her coat pocket. Good, safe place for them. "Nice to meet you."
She turned to Rufus, hesitantly. "Sir? Was that box ... what I think it was?"
Rufus
Rufus gave his head a bit of a slight nod, managing by some miracle to remain on his feet. His chair, unfortunately, was still a few stories up. Or it had been thrown by the blast. He hadn't bothered to check.
"The Jenova cells," he replied, not letting his voice betray that he was not pleased in the least to realize yet another one of his Turks had been keeping Reno's little school friends a secret from him. "Kadaj has them, now."
He'd have to mention that little indiscretion to Tseng. Later.
Reno
They'd lost the head. Okay. That was bad. And the boss and the rookie weren't dead. That was good. And Cloud was chasing after those guys, and there was no way, Reno was realizing, that he'd be able to outrun the three of them.
...
He looked at Rude. They had a chopper here, didn't they?
...
With bombs in it?
Rude
They weren't going to beat the stupid Remnants hand-to-hand, that much was certain. They needed something with a little more... oomph. Up close and personal. Like what he had in the chopper.
Rude looked at Reno and raised his eyebrows.
Reno
Reno spared Rude a nod. Oh, damn, had he ever missed having someone around who was always on the same freaking page as him.
And then he swallowed. Deep breath. He knew what they had to do.
But first. First, he was going to walk over to Rikku. And he wasn't shaking. Not yet.
"You... know I love you, right?"
Rikku
Last time he said that, it was bad. But ... his boss was still alive, so it couldn't be too bad right now. Right?
She nodded. "I love you, too. What's ..."
Reno
Reno leaned forward, stole her lips away, holding his breath, his heart pounding in his ears.
He had to make this kiss count.
Rikku
Her fingers curled around his lapels and she kissed back, fiercely, wondering why she felt like crying.
Rikku thought she was going to find that out, all too soon.
Reno
Reno let that kiss linger... And then he pulled away. A few reluctant steps. A bit of a wan smile.
"Good," he said softly. "I just wanted to be sure you knew, yoto."
And then he turned. And he was running for all he was worth to where the chopper was waiting.
Rikku
"Reno!" she called after him.
This was bad. This was very bad.
She whirled around, eyes narrowing on Tseng.
"What's he doing?"
Rude
Rude had already run through an abbreviated pre-flight checkup, and powered the engines. The blades started spinning just as Reno approached.
Tseng
Tseng furrowed his eyebrows as Reno and Rude both ran off, and then shook his head as Rikku asked what was going on.
Her best guess was as good as--
The sound of helicopter blades slicing the air broke the confused silence, and his eyes went wide.
"Oh, Leviathan help us," he muttered. "They're going to follow them with the helicopter."
But that kiss Reno had given Rikku... that had been unsettling, at best.
Dōjima
"Why do I get the feeling that's not necessarily under the umbrella of 'good plan?'" Yurika asked, shading her eyes to try and look off in the direction the boys had gone. "I mean, letting Reno out alone is bad enough, but with the infamous Rude? I'm kinda afraid of whatever they've dreamed up."
Rikku
Rikku shook her head, knots forming in her stomach. "They can shoot at them from the chopper, right?" she said. "Which ... isn't that bad."
So that couldn't possibly be it. Not with the way he'd taken off. Shit. Shit. Shit.
Romeo
Romeo's stomach was twisting. "Like hunting," he said, uneasily. "That must be it."
Even he didn't believe that.
Tseng
Tseng felt his eyebrows furrow, and he shook his head.
No. No, that couldn't be right.
"Reno's weapon is his Electromag Rod. Rude is a martial artist." He was frowning. More than usual. "They'd... have to land. And if they did, I can't see them stopping three men on motorcycles with just their hands and a stun baton."
There was a pause. And then a sickening lurch in his guts as he started to put everything together.
"There are explosives. In the helicopter."
Rikku
"They should have said something," Rikku said, shaking her head again. "I have plenty with me. If they were gonna drop bombs on them, I could've ... helped."
Instead, he'd kissed her, told her he loved her, and ran like someone set him on fire. No. Something else. Shit.
"So why didn't they?"
Tseng
"Because," Tseng said, his mind racing through the inventory of the helicopter. He shook his head in disbelief. They were going to. They were...
"They're not going to drop the bombs," he stated. And he despised those words the moment he said them.
Rikku
They were going to set them. Okay. Why not bring her along? They were going to set them and run away again.
... no. There was no time for that, was there?
Just time to park the chopper and wait.
No. No. No.
"Stop this," she pleaded. He was evil, he'd made Reno do unspeakable things, but he still had a soul, didn't he? So stop this.
Tseng
Sick. Sick to his stomach, about to lose two more Turks, and Tseng had figured out what they were going to do just seconds after it was too late for him to actually forbid them from doing it.
Sick. Reno and Rude, heading off on a suicide mission to save the world, taking the last helicopter with them. And he didn't even have a phone.
Sick.
"There's nothing I can do," he said. And he couldn't breathe. He couldn't outrun a helicopter. He couldn't even get in touch with them to tell them they were pushing their boundaries. Kadaj had taken his phone. He was helpless.
Helpless and sick.
Rikku
Couldn't stop it. Wouldn't. He'd broken Reno by making him into what he was, handing out orders to kill and maim like candy, but he wouldn't lift a finger to save him.
Reno being foolish and brave and stupid, dammit, and his boss was going to stand here and shrug it off. One more Turk to the body count. These things just happened in this line of work.
Almost before she realized what she was doing, she had crossed the few steps over to Tseng and smashed that bastard's jaw with her fist.
Dōjima
Yurika stared upward for another moment before shaking her head. "Fucking idiot," she hissed, letting loose with a string of highly obscene Japanese under her breath. "Rikku, phone. Now. Call his fool ass back here."
Rikku
It took a few seconds for Dōjima's words to penetrate the fog, and then Rikku nodded. Right. Right. Not too late. Not giving up. Not yet. Not like this.
Flipping open her cell and punching in numbers, except they were all dancing around over each other, concentrate, Rikku, dammit.
Hard when her vision was blurring over with tears. Hold it together.
Romeo
Romeo watched, biting his lips. Awkwardly, he reached to put a hand on Rikku's shoulder. It was nothing. It was all he had.
If Reno would just answer his phone...
Rikku
Rikku drew another unsteady breath, but her control was slipping, badly.
She crumpled, leaning into the touch and resting her head against his chest.
Phone. Phone. She needed to be dialing. She held it out as far as she could, shaking it once or twice. Someone? Please? Her phone, her ringtone, he'd have to pick up. Right?
Tseng
Tseng had hit the ground when the girl had thrown her punch. For as well as he had been doing standing up, he hadn't had the opportunity to entirely properly heal yet.
And his mind had been on anything but a fist flying at his face.
He wanted to touch a hand to his jaw almost tenderly as he pulled himself to his feet. Instead, he shot a look at Elena that would have frozen a behemoth in its tracks. She'd had her gun drawn almost before he hit the ground.
Now was not the time.
Rikku's phone was there, like some sort of bright orange beacon in her hand that served as the last hope he had of calling off his Turks. He reached for it, selected Reno's number. Dialed.
"Kadaj has mine," he stated. It was the only explanation he was going to offer for the response he had given her earlier.
Reno
Reno's phone was ringing. And it wasn't stopping. It would ring. And then it would stop. And then it would ring again, in that familiar ringtone that was threatening to wrench his heart out of him through his throat.
He kept his eyes out the window, making a point to look for the motorbikes below. They ought to be easy enough to spot. There wasn't much traffic heading out of Midgar, these days.
"I got fireworks in the back," Reno said to Rude, conversationally. "Made 'em at school. Maybe toss those in, too. Could be flashy or somethin'."
Reno liked flashy. Seemed as good a way to do this as any.
Rude
Rude nodded. "And I know you like... flashy."
No emotions. Emotions were weakness. Emotions were overrated. Emotions would convince him to grab Reno's phone and answer it, and that would be bad. Eyes on the road below, mind on the mission.
Reno
"Flashy's what I live for," Reno agreed with a nod as he pointedly turned his face away from Rude to stare out the side window.
His phone was still playing Cuban Pete.
"Is that them down there?" A small gaggle of high-speed racers was heading for the tunnel under the overpass, a sort of patchwork attempt at repairing and improving the exit from Midgar so that Edge would be more readily accessible by chocobo. Or tractor. Or whatever the hell else could navigate the roads, anymore.
Another project in the right direction by the WRO. And they were gonna blow it all to hell.
Rude
A tunnel was good. One way in, one way out, no chance for escape. Just like the Turks.
"Yup," Rude confirmed. "Let's do this."
Reno
Reno nodded, and the chopper started its descent toward the exit of the tunnel.
Let's do this.
Romeo
Romeo had been frozen and staring at the chopper, but his limbs were starting to thaw with restless energy. "We can't -" he started, not even sure what exactly to call the thing they couldn't do.
He glanced around, eyes drawn back to the monument-that-was. "The children," he exclaimed. "We need to help them. It's ... something."
Something besides waiting to watch his best friend die.
Elena
Elena's attention jumped from the doomed chopper to the blond boy, who seemed to be a friend of Reno's. And from him, to the charred remains of the monument, and the townspeople surrounding it.
"Sir," Elena said, nodding her head to Tseng. "There are injured civilians. We need to secure the location."
If she was going to be Tseng's only underling, then she could damn well act like a Turk.
Dōjima
Dōjima watched the chopper for another moment before turning and started back to the monument. She wasn't a Turk, and she wasn't going to wait for orders like one. "You're right, aijin, let's go."
Reno had told them to help the kids before the giant freakin' dragon. They had dealt with the lizard, time to go back to the children.
Tseng
Tseng gave his head a quick nod, the throbbing in his jaw and the ache throughout his body all but forgotten as he dialed. Again.
No answer. Again.
"Go."
And again, dialing again. Damn it, Reno. Rude.
Rikku
Rikku pulled back, wrapping her arms around herself. "Go," she said. "Please."
She should. She couldn't. She had to stay here and watch the final moments tick down.
Some Guardian she was.
Reno
The phones had been left in the chopper. The ringing was distracting. And besides, there were bombs.
Like the one in Reno's hand. Reno looked at it casually for a moment, before glancing to Rude. They were going to do this.
They had to.
"Hey, partner... This thing, uh... got any bite to it?"
That wasn't a nervous quiver in his voice. He was fucking fine.
Rude
Did it have any BITE to it? They were laying their lives on the line in the hope that maybe, just maybe, they could buy Cloud the time he needed to save the world. And the Remnants had already proved to be really hard to kill.
"Shin-Ra technology at its finest." He wouldn't trust anything less.
Reno
"Aaah, so you made this?" Reno nodded down at the bomb in his hand. In his freaking hand and they were gonna set it off in maybe a minute, if that, and if they were lucky, it would do some good.
Just another day in the life...
Rude
Of course he made it. His explosives always that that little extra oomph you couldn't get from factory-made ordinance. But Reno knew that already.
"If nothing else it's... flashy." And he knew Reno liked flashy.
This was it. Against impossible odds, with Reno at his side. If he had to go, this was exactly how he'd want it to happen.
Reno
Reno loved flashy. He made those fireworks himself. In class. At school. Hey. Always knew an education would come in handy for something.
"Oh, good."
This was as close as they were going to come to a 'nice to have known you, buddy, see you 'round,' wasn't it? Well. Reno would take it. At least, for once, they were two Turks doing the right thing.
Rude
Reno wasn't expecting a sappy "See you in the Lifestream," was he? Rude didn't go in for sappy.
"You love it, I know."
Reno
Reno smirked and squared his shoulders. Rude was a damn fine partner. Couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather blow himself straight to Hell alongside.
He turned, then, to face the tunnel, setting his jaw and taking a deep breath.
"Looks like today, we're clockin' out early."
Romeo
Children. Injured children. he had to think about them, not himself, not Rikku or Reno or dragons.
Romeo started mechanically. Pour the potion between the child's lips, walk them, the ones who could walk -- save the ones who had to be carried for those with two good arms -- to the hospital area.
If he did it fast enough he wouldn't cry.
Elena
It felt useful to be coordinating, directing, guiding the WRO workers to where they'd do the most good, getting down on hands and knees and feeding potions to those worst off.
Elena had never gone through that other Turk rite of passage, where you poured a silent drink for a fallen comrade even as their name was scrubbed out from history. Turks didn't get memorials. Turks were only remembered by other Turks.
Elena thought that it had been much nicer, being the dismissed rookie, than knowing what the word Turk really meant.
Rikku
The President guy who'd been faking the whole wheelchair thing was just standing there, and the boss-guy who wasn't dead after all, damn him, was dialing and dialing and dialing, and Rikku was standing on the edge of the scaffolding, watching the dot where the helicopter had landed.
"Never thought you were the hero type," she said softly.
Reno
No more overtime.
Just the dull hum of motorbikes in the tunnel increasing to a steady roar.
Kadaj flew by, head in hand. And then Cloud followed him. That left the other two, still in hot pursuit.
A dark grin spread across Reno's lips.
And then it was all light and sound and fire and pain and darkness.
Romeo
And beyond the children, there was a huge explosion, sparkles and noise and light brighter than anything Romeo had seen. Ash soared through the air and Romeo covered his face against the heat.
He couldn't say anything; he was just going to stand there for a moment and pray.
Dōjima
Don't look. Don't look, shield the eyes of the child you're trying to help and keep working.
You do the job.
Yurika could cry later. She'd crawl into bed and not come out for a week. Right now, she had a job to do.
Tseng
The bomb.
His Turks.
Two more names to strike from the record. Two more on his head.
Two men that Tseng had considered, even before he'd considered them his subordinates, to be his friends.
He shut the orange phone that he'd taken from Rikku. And he turned toward the fire. And he saluted them both.
Elena
Elena allowed herself one moment to close her eyes and feel it. Or maybe to try her damnedest not to feel it at all.
She would give the sunglasses to Tseng. It might be all they had left of Rude.
Then she stood up, brushing the dirt from her suit, and looked for the next child to help. There were still injured children. The world didn't stop for lost Turks. It never did.
Rookie. She would have given a lot to hear it again.
Rufus
The explosion was inevitable, Rufus knew, but that didn't make it any less of a shock as the sky lit up in flames and fireworks.
Somewhere deep within him, there was the slightest pull of regret. Some notion that there had to have been something he could have done to keep His Turks alive. Spending the weekend believing Tseng and Elena to be lost had been troubling enough; the ID cards that Kadaj had presented him with had rocked him harder than he'd ever care to admit.
He remained standing, despite old injuries and geostigma alike protesting harshly.
He wouldn't normally allow for displays of emotion from himself in the face of moments like this. Still and all, he had to allow some measure of a reaction. It was inside of him, screaming to be let out past the barricades and the stubbornness.
At the loss of two more Turks, Rufus Shinra flinched.
Rikku
Rikku promised herself she'd watch. It was the last she'd see of him. But the light of the fireball was blinding, if you stared right at it, and she flinched.
She waited for the roar and the smoke to die down. So that was it. Good-bye. I love you. I'm sorry.
"Dork," she whispered.
[Once again with the NFI and NFB goodness, and preplayed with the_merriest, fair_montague, dojima_hime, and sarcasm_guy with chunks of dialog snitched from Advent Children. OOC? Still totally welcome.]