Full Circle to the Truth
This story is rated M for violence, blood, slight gore, and intense situations.
Author's note: This story is an extended and higher rated version (with an added prologue and epilogue) of the story Nut from my one-shot series, Arsenal of Words. For those of you who are familiar with that series, this also ties in with Miscreant (Leon's mentioned warning) and Beat (Zack's mentioned warning). However, it is not necessary to have read any of those tales to read and understand this one. Thank you and enjoy.
Prologue:
It was cold that evening, having grown dark earlier, and Riku was tired from a full day of school and work. Debugging and rebuilding Ansem's old computer system was harder than any of the others had expected. Being taught by Ansem himself meant that Riku was usually the only one to make any sort of actual progress with it.
There was the added under the table job that Zack had asked him to perform as well. Riku still was not sure what the purpose of deleting all of Ansem's old files on the Jenova project and himself was supposed to accomplish. He was the only one who could master the system well enough to retrieve them; in addition, he was one of only five people who knew the password into the computer system. However, the boy saved the files on a separate drive and deleted the originals anyway.
Therefore, the idea of taking a shortcut home sounded fine to the cyan-eyed boy's tired and distracted mind that evening.
The silvered adolescent was pulled from his musings as he cut between two buildings and into an alleyway. A sound to his left told the boy that someone else was in the alley, staggering slightly and moving in his direction. Their scent was familiar, but not so much that he could discern who it was by that alone. He could however, smell the tinge of alcohol on them...whoever it was had clearly had a little too much to drink that evening. The teenager stepped into the shadows and waited for the person to pass by.
A moment later, Reno crossed the alley ahead of the boy, clearly unaware of his presence. Riku was going to let the man continue for a few paces before he moved, as he simply did not feel like talking and certainly was not up for the man's antics, but he had a strange feeling that danger was near. The man's judgment would probably be compromised by the amount of alcohol he had no doubt consumed.
"Reno;" Riku stepped out of the shadows and approached the redhead, who had paused and turned upon hearing his name.
A smirk reached the Turk's lips as his icy blue eyes fell on the adolescent. "Hey Silver, what are you doing here?"
"Taking a shortcut;" The cyan-eyed teen shrugged and continued walking, the man falling into step beside him without preamble.
"Why are you out so late by yourself?" asked Reno after a moment of silence.
The sense of danger was still present, and the boy was beginning to grow nervous as he tried to pay attention to any sounds or scents in the alley ahead of or behind them. He could detect none. "I got caught up working on a program on Ansem's old computer."
The silver-haired boy turned his head to glance behind them, wondering what exactly was going on. He vaguely noticed that Reno was murmuring something beside him, but did not pay attention to the words. He made a noncommittal sound a couple times, his focus still on the odd feeling that was creeping up on him.
One of the Turk's hands abruptly gripped Riku's shoulder, turning the boy towards him as he lurched forward, his other hand slipping up the front of the boy's abdomen, lifting his shirt in the process. The cyan-eyed teen gasped and raised his hands to catch the man's chest as he looked up the alley, wondering if the intoxicated man would be able to keep his footing until they reached the end.
Before Riku could turn his head back to the Turk, he hissed as he was slammed against the wall behind him abruptly. His back and head collided with the stone wall painfully as a hot mouth attached to the joint where his shoulder met his neck. At the same time, the hand under Riku's shirt shifted in a manner that was definitely not innocent while the other hand dipped under the waistline of the adolescent's pants. Once the teen realised his mistake, he shifted his weight and tried to push the man off.
Reno's mouth remained on the boy's skin as his hand expertly slipped further down the teen's pants to grip his limp groin, causing the adolescent to release a fearful groan. Then Riku saw an opening and punched the Turk in the stomach as hard as he could at the awkward angle. With a groan, the redhead pulled his head back as he doubled over, and Riku punched him in the jaw. Both males crashed to the ground due to the man's hands being tangled in the boy's clothing.
Riku quickly scrambled out of the Turk's grasp and summoned Way to the Dawn, which was aimed at the redhead's throat as the boy kneeled on the ground a few feet away from him. Fearful icy blue eyes met frightened and angry cyan for the briefest moment.
"Drunk or not, you'd better never touch me again." Riku released his Keyblade and ran before the man could respond, knowing that he could not mistake the warning while staring into his eyes like that.
Riku did not stop running until he was inside Leon's house.
Reno remained in the alley long after the boy's footsteps faded into nothing.
Two days later found Reno passing through the same alleyway, as it was the most effective shortcut from the business part of town to the residential area. The man had been thinking of the incident with the boy over that time. Not only did he feel genuine remorse for violating the adolescent, but also, he was concerned for his own well-being. The boy was fair and honestly preferred not to harm people, especially people who were not a serious threat, and for someone of the teen's skill and breeding, few were.
However, after a previous and less forceful incident between him and the silvered adolescent, both the boy's boyfriend and his godfather had warned Reno about the consequences for any repeat offences. The redhead had had every intention of heeding those warnings, but the combination of his drunken state that night and the lack of the boy's usual stand-offish attitude toward the Turk had made it too easy to resist.
At least the former SOLDIER simply slammed the Turk against a wall and threatened him with bodily harm…Reno was much more concerned over Leon's warning. Most tended to forget what the former mercenary was capable of now that he was a revered leader and swordsman. Reno knew the boy would insist that he had handled it, which was true; however, he doubted that Leon and Zack would simply let the incident go unpunished.
Therefore, Reno was not surprised when he heard someone step into the alley behind him after passing the juncture he had met Riku in two evenings prior. He turned around as he drew his weapon, hoping that he would not truly need it, and then his breath hitched as his eyes widened.
Standing in the alley was not Leon or Zack, but Sephiroth.
The winged man's face was set in a dangerously cold expression. "Good. I see I need no introduction."
The Turk debated running on the spot. He only did not because he knew he could not outrun an angel. "What the…what do you want?"
Catlike sea green eyes narrowed. "What I want, is to ensure that you never harm my son again."
The redhead raised his free hand and took a step back as the silvered man began to move forward slowly. "Trust me, I've been warned about that enough, yo."
The former SOLDIER made a contemptuous sound as he continued his advance. "This is not a petty warning or threat. I am simply going to remove your reason for desiring him."
Reno's eyes widened as he realised what the one-winged angel was insinuating. He dodged Masamune and attempted to duck past the winged man, but felt a hand grab his neck painfully as he did so before he was slammed against the opposite wall.
The Turk swiped at the hybrid with his Electro Magnetic Rod, which the winged man easily dodged before attacking with his own weapon. Reno managed to evade the first two attacks, but was slashed in the thigh the third time, before being struck in the shoulder with the hilt of Masamune.
His back arched in pain, before he let out a blood curdling scream as a new and more terrible pain shot through his body from his neither regions. The edges of his vision turned dark and all he could hear was his pulse pounding and the blood rushing in his ears. As something dropped and the pain intensified, Reno felt Masamune leave him and he collapsed to the ground once he was no longer pinned to the wall.
Reno heard a voice pleading, "Please, stop." All he could determine was that the voice was not his own.
Then he succumbed to the pain and blacked out.