Author's Note: I think this is the second time I've re-written this chapter, so hopefully it will read a little better this time around ... either that or third time will be the charm, lol! Anyways, just want to say thanks a million for taking the time to read this guys!!
Important Note; As stated in the original, this fic was inspired by a story called "When Rude Met Reno" by the talented Vitalini whose fic in turn had been inspired by another Reno and Rude story called "Stability", whose author I sadly don't know, or else that person would be getting the credit. Seeing as this was inspired by Vitalini's fic, I sought her permission to post it and she gave me consent. So if anyone wishes for proof, then pm me and I'll e-mail it to you, thanks guys!!
The sound of yawning seemed to claim the large assembly hall on the fifty-fourth floor; one person had unintentionally let a tired yawn loose and like some contagious disease, the action soon spread like an epidemic though the Turk rookies. They had only just arrived from Junon half-an-hour ago and were immediately herded into this large hall to await an addressing from the President amongst other officials of the Shinra Electric Power Company.
Excitement and apprehension could be felt on the air, undermined by a lurking fear aswell; most of hopefuls had endured three to fours years of training and theory-study to get this far, and now they were just a few hurdles from the finish line. But they all knew they could still stumble and fall out of the race; only an elite few of their thirty strong regiment would make the cut.
The low chatter within the hall immediately died as the commander of Shinra's Turks stood. He was an intimidating man with dark brown hair, a matching goatee and hazel eyes. To further instil fear, the man possessed an aged face that was lined with wrinkles and a scar marring his left cheek. Veld also lacked one of his arms; his left one had been lost during Kalm's razing many years ago, but it had been replaced with a prosthetic fitted with an arsenal of materia.
The trainees watched in unknowing interest as the venerable commander turned to his second-in-command, a young man from Wutai named Tseng. Seconds ticked by as Veld mouthed a few hushed words to his future successor, with President Shinra looking very disgruntled. It looked as though all wasn't going to plan as a blonde woman threw a dirty look towards the two Turks.
Watching from the stands, the rookies seemed to be at a loss as to what was happening. Pushing his shades a little further up his nose, Rude suppressed a yawn as he looked down towards the suited Turks, his eyes trained on Veld and Tseng. The two were keeping their composure as leaders, but it was clear to see something was amiss. Almost as though reading his thoughts, a voice spoke close to his ear.
"What d'you think the problem is?"
It was Rob who asked the question, with his eyes looking to President Shinra. Rude shrugged his answer, an action Rob had become used to. They'd become good friends along with a few more trainees over the last couple of years; sharing the triumphs and failures of their training in Junon. The group of friends had become noticeably smaller in the last few months; people had either dropped out or had been deemed below-criteria by the Junon training scouts. He and Rob had once been part of a group of twelve friends, but that had rapidly shrunk to five. In the seats beside them sat the other three members of their small group; Kion, Leeron and Carla.
It was the only girl amongst the five that watched the Turks down below, her eyes trying to focus on Veld and his second-in-command. After a few more seconds, she was the one to answer Rob's question.
"I think they're looking for someone."
The young woman was somewhat of a lip-reader, only developing her talent in the past few months and not quite capable of reading whole conversations yet, but her knack helped out every now and then. Looking back down at the commander of the Turks, the young woman nodded her head, feeling sure of what was happening; she'd definitely seen Veld mouth the word "find" and numerous Turks were exiting and entering the hall every few minutes, as though searching for something.
The hall remained silent as the atmosphere became tense. President Shinra was not looking very pleased with the delay on the Turks' part and the blonde woman seemed to be getting more impatient as the seconds ticked by. They'd been cooped here for almost an hour now, and many of the trainees were desperately fighting jetlag; as soon as they'd arrived from Junon they'd been led to this hall and now awaited the arrival of someone.
Veld took a steadying breath as his eyes scanned the trainees for the umpteenth time in the last hour; he had his Turks out looking for the duo, but none of the seven could locate them. He was angry now. He'd specifically pulled them aside last night and laid down the ground rules; not to be late for the newbies' arrival at any costs. Despite any warning the duo were missing in action, most likely still be in bed sleeping off hangovers. Why they were so unruly he would never know; the two were amongst his very best Turks, but they needed to grow up a little.
Rubbing his temple as a headache began to throb into life, Veld looked to Tseng and spoke lowly.
"Someone find Red and Moon, now."
Carla looked to the boys as she reiterated the words; those were the words Veld had just spoken to Tseng. She was lucky he had said it so slowly or her eyes wouldn't have followed his lip movements half as well. Not knowing what to make of the apparently abstract request, the boys merely shrugged and returned to watching the Turks below.
It was another tense fifteen minutes before the doors opened to reveal what everyone had been waiting for; two young individuals being frog-marched into the hall by two older Turks. The lanky redhead of the delinquent pair was a good foot taller than the brown-haired female, the two of them creating a somewhat mis-matched couple. In his hand was an i-Pod, with one earphone in his ear and the other in hers. They didn't seem to notice the awaiting trainees or even the President himself, just sheepishly looked to Tseng who spoke in a low yet serious voice.
"Take a seat; I will talk to both of you afterwards."
Rob blinked with surprise as he watched the new arrivals; they had been waiting all this time for these two? They looked like a couple of trainees. Why had they been forced to wait almost half an hour for this duo, when they appeared to be only out of Junon themselves?
The girl of the pair rolled her eyes up to heaven as she followed the lad nicknamed Red to the stands, with them sitting about two rows down from the trainees. As silence fell upon the hall once again, the woman with tresses of blonde hair stood forward to address the assembled recruits; she had large blue earrings and lips which bore overly-red lipstick. Though she was attractive, the woman wore quite a posh red dress which made her skin look pale. It wasn't the sort of thing one would wear when working; maybe if she were going to a formal of some sort the dress would be appropriate, but definitely not as the head of Weapon's Development.
Despite this, the blonde spoke with an air of high superiority and a voice tinged with annoyance. The harsh glare she wielded told the trainees that she not a person to have as an enemy. This was further emphasized as she spoke in a low voice, whilst looking pointedly at the late arrivals.
"Now that the last of the insubordinate Turks have arrived-"
"Scarlet, I've told you not to use words you can't spell."
The brunette nicknamed as 'Moon' was idly picking at her nails as she spoke the words, not even glancing up to see the threatening look on the blonde woman's face. That said, the youth did smile with satisfaction as a few of the rookies stifled laughs.
"C'mon then; in-sub-or-din-ate … sound it out and spell it, Scarlet."
A few chuckles escaped the tired trainees as the young woman decidedly looked up at Scarlet, still taunting her. To add to the annoyance, the redhead beside her began to laugh aswell, setting off a few of the newbies close by.
"That's enough, you two."
All of the hall, along with Red and Moon immediately fell silent as Veld spoke in a calm and yet clearly authoritative voice. It was clear to see the amusement in Tseng's eyes as he watched the two smirking guiltily, along with what appeared to be protectiveness; seeing this unusual trait, Carla frowned for a second.
It was an hour and a half later, before the lengthy speeches of the Shinra officials and President Shinra himself were finally over and done with. The end of the addressing had only come about thanks to a little plump man named Heiddegger; he had summoned the company-owner away rather abruptly. The President's son had decided to pay an unexpected visit. A few of the Turks cringed as they heard this; the next couple of days should be fun as trouble always seemed abundant whilst Rufus was in the building, and they had a large amount of trainees to deal with aswell.
"Check it out …"
It was Rob to elbow Kion and point down to the two Turks who had entered late. Rob stifled a laugh as he looked to where his friend was pointing; the girl with brown hair had fallen asleep while leaning against the redhead. As the rest of the heads of departments exited the hall, Veld stood up to the podium and ran his gaze over the newbies once more, taking note of a slumbering individual amongst his Turks.
"When I have finished talking, all Turk-hopefuls are permitted to the common room and cafeteria to get some food; you will be led there by Caleb. All of you are to assemble in this hall at nine hundred hours tomorrow morning. Dismissed."
"C'mon yo!"
Moon woke with a start as her friend grabbed her by the arm and jumped into the throng of departing trainees, and forcefully dragging her with him; she was still half-asleep as equally-tired rookies surrounded her and Red's hand yanked her forward. They managed to make it to within eight feet of the door before Veld's serious voice was heard summoning them back again, having watched their attempt at an escape.
"Moon and Red, get back here!"
"Shit, yo…"
Carla glanced over her shoulder as the duo were called back, curiosity getting the better of her; she wanted to see how the Turks would be penalised for the lack of respect they had shown. The two had turned to face their commander and stood before him, grinning like two children before an angry parent or an annoyed teacher. They bore no respect at all; neither of them apologised to Tseng or Veld, and both of their uniforms were sloppy and untidy. The lad had an un-tucked shirt with half the buttons open and was sporting worn sneakers, whilst the girl wore the female version of the uniform trouser and her shirt was un-tucked aswell, with the top two buttons opened and her black bra just about visible.
Hovering by the door, Carla let her friends walk ahead as she remained interested in the punishing of qualified Turks, that and the duo intrigued her somewhat; to act so nonchalant in a profession where obedience and respect were core seemed outrageous to her.
"What was that about?"
The young trainee noted that Veld didn't sound angry, just slightly weary. It was almost as though he had dealt with this kind of behaviour on countless occasions before and it no longer had any effect on him. The two just shrugged in response to the question.
"Sorry miss, but you can't stay here; eavesdropping is considered bad-manners."
Carla jumped as she heard the voice behind her and turned to see a tall, suited Turk standing there. His green eyes were looking from her to hall where his comrades were being reprimanded; the two would get off with slapped wrists, but the little newbie was a bit too curious for her own good.
"If Tseng or Veld caught you, they'd probably send you straight back to Junon to start your training all over again."
At this, the rookie looked to the ground, blushing furiously at the thought; she could have just thrown away four years of training for nothing. Smiling kindly, the black-haired individual began walking towards the end of the corridor as she followed, feeling low.
"And you might want to watch how you use your lip-reading aswell; curiosity killed the Chocobo…"
"You saw that?"
More blushing as the Turk nodded and she diverted her gaze to the ground whilst walking; this hadn't been the best of starts in the Turks so far.
Getting tired of standing still and waiting to be told off yet again, the redheaded lad took a silver necklace form his pocket and began twirling it around his finger. Tseng shook his head as he recognised the necklace and spoke to the boy with slight annoyance.
"Will you quit that?"
"Hey! That's mine, you freak!"
Having looked to chain at the same time as Tseng, the girl grabbed it from Red's hand and slapped him round the back of his head; he always managed to undo the clasp without her noticing. Fastening the chain around her slender neck, Moon looked up at her superiors, flashing a cheeky yet hopeful grin.
"Are we finished yet?"
Veld nodded wearily and sighed yet again as the youthful tag-team exited the hall; what had he been thinking? They'd never grown up in his wildest dreams. Walking out into the corridor of the Shinra building, Red and Moon paused for a second to gain their bearings and make sure that Scarlet wasn't on their tails for an earlier prank. She might be mad for the jibes earlier, but just wait until she saw her lovely newly-detailed car…
"Where to, yo?"
Smirking at his question, Moon looked up at her friend with a mischievous twinkle in her own hazel eyes. She nodded in the general direction of where the rookies had headed and reclaimed one of Red's still-audible earphones.
"The common room obviously; I want to see these newbies!"
A/n- Thanks a million for taking the time read this guys and please let me know what you thought of it!! XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX