The redhead's bright sea green eyes widened slightly as he surveyed the bodies of fallen Shinra troops that littered the ground between the chopper and the edge of the cliff overlooking Midgar. Judging from the complete lack of movement in the area, the survivors of the battle had already fled – if there were survivors. It certainly didn't seem like the huge number of troops had done very well. To think that just two fugitives – one, really, since the other was supposedly catatonic – could fight off that many soldiers. SOLDIER 1st Class indeed.
"Geez, the president sent a freakin' legion after these guys. Think they made it?" the redhead asked his bald companion.
"Unlikely," the other man replied bleakly. The pilot shook his head sadly and sighed.
"The boss ain't gonna be happy about this." His friend didn't answer, instead looking out the window for any signs of Cissnei. She'd been in another helicopter and probably arrived shortly before they did, knowing her. She had known the fugitives better than the other Turks and had the strongest desire to rescue them. Their boss, Tseng, had been unusually willing to disobey President Shinra in order to help out the two escapees. For Tseng to go against (or around) orders meant that this was serious.
"C'mon, we should go look for them," the redhead told his friend as he turned off the helicopter and took off his headset. His friend, Rude, did the same and in a moment the two of them were out of the chopper and headed for the cliff.
Cissnei was glad her assigned helicopter pilot had volunteered to fly around and look for signs of any human life in a ten-mile radius. She didn't want anyone to see her cry.
The young woman felt helpless. Hadn't she left Midgar the instant the Turks had found out where Zack and Cloud were? Hadn't she yelled at the pilot to go faster? Hadn't she tried hard enough to save them? Yet here she was, sitting on the muddy ground and trying not to look at Zack's bloodstained body. Tears streamed down her face in an uncharacteristic show of grief. Rage and sadness warred in her heart, but after a moment the anger evaporated. The only one to blame for this was Shinra itself. Cissnei had been raised by Shinra and the Turks. They were the only family she had ever known. As much as she wanted to hate someone for Zack's murder, she couldn't lash out at Shinra. Call it denial or a dysfunctional family relationship, but Cissnei would never admit that Shinra was evil – that she and the other Turks had a hand in that evil.
"Sorry, Zack," Cissnei murmured hoarsely as she blinked away more tears and focused on his face. "We lost. We've been losing from the beginning, I think." She reached out and brushed a strand of dark hair away from Zack's face. Her fingers came away bloody. The Turk stared at the red, sticky liquid on her hand and felt sick. The army really was overkill. Vaguely she wondered if Heidegger had talked President Shinra into sending out troops instead of leaving the matter to the Turks. After the end of the Wutai wars, Heidegger had started looking for any excuse to use military force. Feeling resentful towards Heidegger and the Shinra executives in general, Cissnei curled her hand into a fist and punched the ground to relieve some stress. Water and mud splattered across her ruined suit. She was a mess. This whole operation was a mess.
"Ah, damn it…" said a voice behind her. Cissnei stiffened and hastily pulled herself together. Turks did not cry, not even when their friends were killed. She stood up clumsily and almost lost her footing on the slippery earth. When she turned around, her eyes were dry and she'd regained some composure. Reno and Rude, her seniors and partners on this mission, eyed her and the destruction around her with a mix of pity and grim resignation. They were both young, Reno having just turned twenty-five and Rude twenty-six in another month, but they'd seen plenty of violence in their time and were used to it.
"This is…" Rude began.
"…pretty damn ugly," Reno finished for him, kicking a discarded machine gun and watching it skitter a few feet. Empty bullet shells gleamed in the dim light and made the barren hillside look like a gold mine. The redhead's eyes wandered to Zack's body and he let out a short breath.
"Man, even the SOLDIER guy didn't make it. Where's his pal, the blond kid?" Reno asked, craning his neck to get a better view of the battlefield. Cissnei glared at him.
"His name is…was…Zack," she answered tersely. There was a pause while the redhead processed the woman's tone and decided an apology would help him avoid a shouting match.
"I'm sorry. I forgot you knew him pretty well," Reno said. He and Rude had been out on assignment too much to become friends with Zack, but they had run into him a few times in the past. All Reno remembered about the SOLDIER 1st Class was a broad smile and overconfidence that rivaled the pilot's. Aside from that, the people who had known Zack – his parents and friends in Gongaga, other SOLDIER operatives, Cissnei – had all described him as a good person. He wasn't the sort of man who deserved to be cornered and gunned down like a criminal.
"We should bury him," Rude suggested suddenly. Cissnei swallowed thickly and nodded. Turks were often in charge of clean up after covert Shinra missions. Getting rid of corpses was standard procedure.
"Can we…can we have a tombstone for him, or something?" Cissnei asked. Reno shook his head. The young woman looked disappointed but didn't say anything.
"Rude, go get the shovels from the chopper," Reno told his friend. Rude nodded curtly and walked off. In the meantime, Cissnei went and sat by Zack's body again to keep vigil. Reno stood nearby, staring out towards Midgar and thinking about when to call Tseng and tell him they'd failed.
It was getting dark when the two Turks stopped digging.
Cissnei was still guarding her friend's corpse, grieving in reverse: she had started with the pain and was now backtracking into shock and disbelief. Reno and Rude didn't talk about it while they finished the grave. Cissnei was much more sensitive and insecure than other Turks. She hid it behind her bossiness but after years of working with her the two men could tell she wasn't as tough as she looked. Personally, Reno thought Shinra should have left her alone when they had heard she had talent. Being in the Turks was hard on the mind and the soul. Not many of them lived to see retirement. Death surrounded them constantly. To take a child and train her to be a killer was twisted, so naturally Shinra excelled at it.
"Is she all right?" Rude muttered under his breath.
"Of course not," Reno scoffed, pausing to stretch his sore arms and observe the darkened sky. It was still raining off and on and everyone was soaked to the skin. He looked forward to going home and taking a shower. Maybe they'd take Cissnei to the local bar so she could drown her misery in a beer bottle. That's what Reno and Rude had learned to do, anyway.
"This is deep enough," Reno said after another moment. It was a crude grave about six feet deep, a large lopsided rectangle carved into the otherwise dusty earth. Reno and Rude awkwardly climbed out and brushed off their clothes. Reno shook his head to get the water out of his eyes. Droplets went flying from his spiky hair and long ponytail. Rude readjusted his sunglasses even though he probably didn't need them in the semidarkness. Both of them waited for Cissnei to finish saying her goodbyes. Despite the rapidly dropping temperature, she wasn't shivering and didn't seem to be aware of her environment. Reno thought he understood. It had been the same way for him the first time a comrade had been killed during a mission. He'd felt completely numb for days afterwards. It had taken almost six months for him to fully recover.
Cissnei sat quietly for a few more minutes. She could sense Reno and Rude watching her and felt a little guilty for keeping them out in the rain longer than they had to be. They were good people, really. The army and SOLDIER thought the Turks were a group of backstabbing spies and murderers, but Turks were fiercely loyal to their own. They were a family. Cissnei choked back another sob at that thought. She had met Zack's parents. They never got a chance to say goodbye to their son. Cissnei wouldn't even be allowed to tell them what happened. It wasn't right. Rubbing her eyes and nose with the back of her hand, Cissnei stood up and gave Zack a pained smile.
"I wanted to tell you my real name, so you could get to know the real me – not the Turk, but me." She paused and looked up at the sky. Clear patches were visible through the clouds, a brilliant display of orange and yellow and red as the sun set beyond the hills.
"When we meet again, I'll use my name. In heaven there's no such thing as Turks and SOLDIER. There's just friends."