Time had slowed to a crippled crawl. Cool blue eyes stared at the silver wall clock, absentmindedly watching the second hand tick away fractions of a life. Despite himself, the Turk considered the current state of affairs.
His city had fallen. The President had somehow postponed his own demise, yet now sat ever-so-patiently on Death's doorstep. What little fragments remained of Shinra Incorporated were dark and hollow, faces sapped of smiles and eyes drained of the trademark light that once belonged to purpose. The death of an empire was slow and heavy, taking down everyone that once thrived in it.
Healin Lodge's air was thin and crisp, sanitizing chemicals piercing the senses and numbing them at the same time. Surviving Avalanche, the fall of the Tower, and Meteor seemed simple feats when compared with keeping his sanity in the cold darkness that was Rufus's infirmary. The President had only recently begun to come out of his sleep for an hour at a time. Yet a Turk need always be at his side, should he need anything at all. Shinra's finest intel operatives, spies, and assassins had been reduced to nurses.
These thoughts sent a wave of nausea over him as he leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs with ease. His hands raised over his head as he took a deep, soothing breath, and fell to rest in his fiery red hair. He chuckled tiredly at the blatant irony that lined his depressing train of thought: he was supposed the be the cheery one.
Reno turned his attention to his charge. The white linens that shrouded Rufus seemed to fit perfectly, he thought. Clean, crisp, sterile, cold. He smirked at the resilience of the persona. Even at the edge of death, Rufus controlled the room.

"You know, you haven't assigned a VP since you took over."
Rufus raised his pistol at the target waiting yards down the shooting range.
"Why would I need one?" He fired, each bullet puncturing the chest of his paper foe. Reno whistled, impressed with both the shooting and the ego.
"You know, to ease the workload for yourself, to manage the less important company affairs. To...succeed you."
The air seemed to chill as Rufus turned his gaze toward Reno.
"Have you failed to make me aware of threats?"
"No. You've met them," Reno replied just as sharply, recalling Rufus's encounter with Avalanche on the roof of the Tower.
"I see no cause to rush the assignment, then. And maybe," he added, blue eyes twinkling with what Reno hoped was not honesty, "I intend to take the whole company down with me."
"It's yours to do with what you will," Reno replied with a grin of comedic acceptance.

"Mission accomplished, Sir," Reno said to ears that could not hear him. He leaned on his forearms on the railing of the bed and watched the comatose president breathe shallow, raspy breaths. Unthinkingly, he reached forward and pushed several light strands of hair out of Rufus's face. They caught on the gauze that wound around his forehead, covering his left eye. Reno dare not let his fingers go nearer to that wound. Instead, he rested his head on his arms and watched Rufus, willing him awake. Within minutes, his own eyelids were weighted, and he drifted into sleep.
The protest of his aching back pulled him from his nap. Upon opening his eyes, Reno lifted his hand away from where it had fallen on Rufus's cool arm. He rubbed the evidence of his sleep from his eyes and turned back toward the clock.
"Ten minutes? Good gods..." he grumbled. "I gotta get outta here," he said to himself, standing abruptly and looking down at his boss. "Are you getting up today?" he asked, immediately feeling foolish at the question. Rufus unsurprisingly failed to answer, and Reno stretched, deciding that some fresh air would rejuvenate his chronically-dampened spirit.

Immediately, he was drawn to the back of the property. Since noticing a narrow wooden staircase leading to the lush ground below the lodge weeks before, Reno had intended to take a trip to the feature that had drawn Shinra's developers to the area: the waterfall.
He descended the staircase carefully: it had proven steeper than it appeared, and a single misstep could have ended the trip before it even began. The waterfall's mist saturated the air below the lodge, and it felt somehow both heavy and refreshing in Reno's lungs. When his boots hit the grass, a deep sigh escaped him. Sunshine had proven scarce in the last several weeks, and yet wildflowers bloomed amid the small green hills. Reno paused to look at a particularly bright pink flower. Familiar uneasiness began to set in as his mind ran in its most common direction: backward.

"What is this?" Rufus asked, staring down at his desk, where a light pink flower lay before him.
"That is a real, live flower. Well, it was alive. It's likely dying now," Reno explained, a proud smirk on his face.
Rufus met Reno's gaze, unamused. The Vice President knew there was no need to vocalize his thoughts. Reno caught the message quickly, and continued.
"Obviously, you knew it was flower. What you didn't know, is that it was growing in Midgar."
"First off, that's impossible. Secondly, I don't care. Why would you assume I care about a flower? I don't even care about your reasoning."
Reno took well to such feigned indifference, enjoying the game he had begun.
"I admit, I thought it was impossible too, what with Shinra sapping Midgar's earth dry. I was out for the Ancient today in 5, and lo and behold, flowers all over the place in there."
"You didn't capture the Ancient?" Rufus assumed, as she was mentioned only on a whim. Reno laughed once and shook his head.
"Not even close."
"So instead, a flower. Does Father know?" Rufus asked, already knowing the answer. Again Reno laughed, then headed for the office door, leaving the flower with Rufus.
"Of course not. Why would the President have an interest in Midgar's botany?"
Rufus let his mouth fall slightly open at the response, and fought a smile as Reno disappeared into the hallway.

A small flock of blackbirds flew just overhead, snapping Reno back into the present. He shook his head to break his gaze away from the flower. They fell instead on the waterfall, and where it ended. Several yards away, a large pond rippled gently at the base of the main attraction. Along the grassy bank ran a natural path of large rocks that led into a small cave behind the waterfall. Reno smiled at his good fortune and headed toward the opening.
He privately celebrated his discovery of the cave by lowering to the smooth stone ground and stretching out on his back to watch the secret side of the waterfall. His mind wanted to stray, as it often did lately, but he kept it quiet, staring at the water as it crashed into the pond. The repetition of the falling water combined with the quiet roar of its impact with the pond quickly caused his eyelids to feel heavy again. He glanced at his thick black watch and internally shrugged. Rufus would be fine for another half hour.
The sleep was dreamless, but deep. His tired body fell completely still, the side of his face eventually falling to rest on the cool ground. Despite his years of training, he did not notice the vibration from light footsteps entering his cave. He did not notice the practiced, black-gloved hand disarm him. He did not notice anything at all, until physical contact was actually made. His eyes flew open to find his wrist held between three long fingers. Instinctively, Reno jerked his arm back, simultaneously reaching for his EMR and stumbling to a standing position. The figure before him rose much more fluidly. Reno patted himself down, realizing his weapons had been taken. He braced himself for a hand-to-hand fight as his mind tried to grapple with the man's identity.
"Who...? What are you doing...?" he tried, words failing him in his groggy surprise. He cursed himself for letting his reflexes slip so far in their disuse.
"I like that question. So many have no need to ask it anymore...I was checking your pulse, Turk. You sleep like the dead."
As the man spoke, Reno's brain went into overdrive to put the pieces together. He had seen him before, though never heard the voice. Diamond Weapon's attack on Midgar. Avalanche had been there to kill Hojo. Strife, Lockhart, and him. They crossed in the street; he had had a streak of blood across his face, though his dark hair had hidden it for the most part. He had suspected the blood was not the man's own. Why had he felt a connection when he saw him? Back in Midgar, those unique eyes had scanned his suit in a flash disapproval. Why would he have cared about a Turk's appearance? You sleep like the dead.
"Valentine," he uttered when his memories came together. The name must have come out with an edge, as Vincent lowered his head and squared his jaw slightly.
"I don't care to hurt you, I was just protecting myself. Needlessly, it appears," Vincent replied, raising his metallic left arm and tossing Reno the EMR. He caught it easily, but did not holster it.
"Why are you in Healin?" Reno asked suspiciously.
Vincent was quiet a moment, before answering. "I come here often."
A moment of tension passed between the two. The silence allowed Reno's mind to return to his duty, and the fact that he had abandoned it for an unknown time.
"Just stay away from the lodge," he warned, turning quickly and exiting the cave, leaving Vincent standing behind the waterfall.