Reno's Interlude
Origonally Published 5.15.2005
A/N: surprisingly, there were no origonal author's notes for this one, but it was the second interlude i ever wrote. i guess i just didn't have much to say about the series yet.
It was raining the day they first sent us all after the Ancient. That brown acid rain that Midgar gets—and that no one should ever be out in. I was in my office smoking a cigarette when Tseng brought the orders in. She was just a girl, but we were supposed to use force if necessary to bring her in.
Seemed mad scientist Hojo wanted her for something. Gave me the creeps thinking about that. We'd all heard the story of what he'd done to the traitor Valentine years ago. No one should have to deal with what he could dish out—especially a pretty girl like that.
But an order was an order. I didn't have to like it—just follow it.
Let me be straight here—I didn't really care what happened to the girl. At least, not as long as Hojo didn't get her. I just didn't like the guy's methods—or the fact that he had no problems experimenting on living human beings.
Sometimes, I had my suspicions about how General Sephiroth got so damn strong too.
Anyway. So we tracked the Ancient—Joda and me—to this little café in Sector 5. In the pouring rain, getting our gear and our uniforms ruined. I had to get a new shock stick after that one, and Shinra, Inc. had to get a new Turk. Not the girl's fault there though, Joda just picked the wrong guy to piss off. I had a hell of a time explaining his broken neck to Tseng, but no one had really liked Joda anyway.
To tell the truth, when Joda got in that fight, I let the Ancient get away on purpose. Course, I'm taking that secret to my grave. Maybe I did care after all—at least a little. She was a sweet kid after all—a kid then anyway.
Its funny. Joda's replacement got killed trying to nab the Ancient too. Don't even remember that guy's name. Seems the girl had friends in Wall Market, too. How a girl like that would get mixed up with people in a slum like that is beyond me. But this tough guy they had working with me decided to mix it up with Beautiful Bro's boys—and man did he pay for it.
After that, Heidegger stopped having Tseng send two Turks in at a time for her. The regular troops were cheaper and more expendable.
It was Tseng who finally got her, you know. While I was being taken to the hospital after Avalanche beat the holy hell out of me. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't me who nabbed her, after all the shit I'd been through; but I couldn't deny Tseng his moment of sunshine.
Whatever that girl did for him, it did wonders. He never had been the same since his wife died. Too bad Sephiroth killed her before I ever got to really see her again. Maybe she could have helped me send away my own demons.