Title: Clash of Dreams
Author: Takebuo Ishimatsu
Pairing(s): Reno/Rude, Vincent/Reeve, others to be decided
Summary: A time travel fic in which Cloud's seeing ghosts, Rude's meeting old friends, Reeve's designing a familiar A. I., Vincent's planning demises, Elena's retaking tests, and Yuffie's…waging a war? Oh yes, Reno's just having a bad day. Yaoi. ReRu, others.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII.
Warning: There be Reno, thus, there be cussing. And yaoi. Lots of lovely yaoi. Also, there may be SPOILERS FOR CRISIS CORE!
AN: Title is…eh. Was trying to think of something semi-witty that had to do with time travel that hasn't already been used in one of the hundreds of FFVII time travel fics. I suppose it'll do.
Chapter One: Rude's Beginning
"Would ya look at that, partner? Looks like our heroes entrusted the materia to this ninja-wannabe," Reno said with a smirk directed towards the big man beside him. Rude "hmmed" in response.
"I am an official ninja, you Turk scum! And even if I wasn't, at least I'm not a worthless gimp!" Yuffie stuck her tongue out as she finished.
The redhead started forwards, but was quickly stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder. He scowled like an unrepentant child at his partner, but the bigger man just shook his head. After his latest scuffle, Reno was in no shape to fight Marlene, let alone one of the Planet's heroes. (Even if the Turks had officially dubbed her the most useless member of Strife's party, only worse than Cait Sith due to the robot's traitorous help to ShinRa.)
"Well, now that we're all here, and getting along so nicely, I might add, let's head into the experiment room," Reeve beamed at both parties, looking not unlike a child at Christmas time, including his obvious anxiousness.
Reno rolled his eyes and turned away from the engineer, his false good-humor having already slipped away. Hand still on his shoulder, Rude gave the other a little squeeze, knowing the smaller man would have normally found the entire venture extremely intriguing, but at the moment he just wanted to get back into bed before his heavy medication wore off.
Despite his moodiness, the Vice Director of Turk seemed to be making a good impression on Strife, who gave Rude a respectful nod as he walked past. Or perhaps it was because of his moodiness? The blond had finally found someone more emo than himself?
Rude shook his head clear of such thoughts, chalking it up to far too many years with his partner. Besides, Valentine was clearly more emo than both blond and redhead put together.
He shifted slightly as red eyes pierced right through his sunglasses, wondering not for the first time if the rumors about the ex-Turk being a mind-reader were true.
"Let's get this shit over with, yo," Reno murmured tiredly, following after the others.
Elena shared a look with the dark man, as best she could through the shades, and Rude made a mental note to rat out his partner to Tseng once they got back. Reno was in no condition to even do desk work if he was already exhausted after a short car ride to the WRO Headquarters.
He cringed at the image of red pubic hairs floating around his coffee or something equally "Reno" once his partner found out he'd voted against his return to duty. Not that he'd never accidentally gotten one of Reno's pubic hairs in his mouth or anything; the man wasn't shaved down there, after all. But, well…he decided not to continue with that particular train of thought.
"Everything ready?" Reeve was practically bubbling with excitement, glancing back and forth between Cait Sith and…Cait Sith and…Cait Sith? Rude's brows drew together as he counted a total of five Cait Siths in the room, all with different colored bows.
"What the hell, yo? You got some kinda robot cat orgy going on in here?" Reno asked what was on everyone's mind, in his usual eloquent and sensitive manner, causing a slight blush to appear on the engineer's face.
Valentine glared death at the younger man, making Reno shrink back into Rude's protective presence, who then gently slid a hand onto his upper right arm, careful of his partner's sling. (Something the other was sure to recognize as the Turk equivalent of a protective embrace.) Of course, both current Turks knew they didn't stand a chance in hell in an actual confrontation, but the gesture seemed to relax the gunman anyway.
If asked, Reno would say it was because the other didn't want to take any chances with the "Deadly Duo." Elena would say it was because they might damage the equipment in the room. Rude would say it was because the other was amused that Reno was someone's bitch.
Valentine smirked knowingly at Rude, who then knew with absolute certainty that the rumors told in the Turk locker rooms were true. The cloaked man had Jedi mind-powers.
"Yes, well…I needed some extra help," Reeve said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and looking around at the Cait Siths curiously, as if just then realizing he needed more human contact.
"But how do you all know which tasks are assigned to which if they all have the same name?" Strife asked softly, diffusing the situation as Reeve suddenly lit up again at the prospect of talking about his favorite sub-subject within his favorite subject. That is, Cait Sith, within the realm of Robotics and Engineering.
"They don't all have the same name! You see, they're all part of the line of 'Sith' models, but not all are actual Cait Siths. Cait Sith is a complete A. I. designed for total immersion into society with the ability to think on his own and/or be fully or partially controlled from a distance. On the other hand, this one here is Pix Sith, which is a partial A. I. designed to build complex machinery, but who lacks the programming needed to handle human relations. I actually then used him to build Juu Sith, which is a…"
Rude tuned the rest of the conversation out, instead paying attention to how wide Strife's eyes were getting. He caught Reno frowning, his blue eyes darting back and forth between Pix Sith and Cait Sith, and Rude just knew his partner was thinking about the two joining forces and creating a robot army to overtake mankind.
Not that he could even pin-point what exactly told him that, if anyone were to ask. Which they did on a regular basis, wondering if either of them actually knew what Reno was talking about when he said he was going to pull a "peanut butter on fungus" on the enemy or if Rude's grunt-hmm-shift actually meant he thought they needed to "blow some shit up." (Un)fortunately, everyone had come to the realization that after fourteen years together, Rude spoke perfect Reno and Reno spoke perfect Rude, whether either of them knew how they did it or not.
Rude briefly contemplated taking a break away from his partner but forced himself to drop it as a moot point once he realized he was already planning the medical precautions they'd need to take to make sure Reno was fine to travel a distance in his condition.
"…and that's really all there is to it!" The bald Turk's attention snapped back to the robotics expert at the sudden excited clap marking the end to his "lecture."
Everyone was silent for a moment before Yuffie finally replied with a forced smile, "Do you wanna go back to the Seventh Heaven with us and get a drink when this is all over?" The engineer wilted a little and the girl hurried on, "Cause Cid is there, you know. And I bet he'd be real interested to hear about how they might help with his ship! It's just a giant machine, after all."
Reeve smiled and shook his head, "That sounds nice, but perhaps tomorrow. I'll want to monitor the equipment for malfunctions after the first run. Oh yes, I don't recommend telling the Captain his Shera II is a 'just a giant machine.'"
They all winced at the imagined response that would be sure to garner.
"Let's get started, shall we? Siths, prepare for the first experiment!" There was a chorus of oddly accented "Yes sir!"s, one of which Rude swore was modeled after Tseng's voice. His partner gave that particular Sith a measuring look and Rude knew his partner's theory of robot domination had been undeniably proven.
"First we need to upload the program. If I may?" Reeve held out his hand to Reno. Looking relieved to finally be getting on with it, he pulled the tiny disc out of his pocket, the only reason he'd been forced to go on the secret mission, and handed it to the engineer. The advanced information on it was Level 9 Classified, meaning only Reno, Tseng and the President were even allowed to know what it was called, let alone what it did, with the exception of Reeve, who'd been given special permission to use it just this once.
Rude knew it was an upgraded version of the holographic program they'd originally used to train SOLDIERs, nicknamed Titan. He also knew it was highly likely he'd be "retired" if his partner ever bit the bullet on a mission, his Level 7 Clearance not enough by itself for all of the info they knew Reno'd been slipping him for years. He was fine with that, both having already decided years ago they were going down together or not at all.
Elena leaned forward not-so-discreetly, though she needn't have bothered since right then they were suddenly in a blank white room with nothing more than a pole-like structure in the middle. Strife's hand went to his blade automatically before he seemed to realize everything was as it should be. Rude made a secondary mental note to watch the other for any future jumpy reactions. The guy could literally kill someone before his brain took the second needed to process the situation. Which was good when Sephiroth wanted to destroy the world. Again. Not so good with his barely-moving partner in the same vicinity.
"And now the materia," Reeve said to Yuffie, pointing towards the virtual edifice in the center of the room, which had a hole in the top. The ninja darted forwards and then waited a moment, most likely for drama's sake, before finally dropping the red materia in the slot.
And then everything went to shit.
AN: Whatcha think? Like all the characters? Think there's too many? Pairing ideas? Like Rude's POV? What POV would you like to see next? (Not guaranteeing anything, but I'm open to suggestions.)