Naril: Hey everyone! I'm sorry... I feel like I'm getting worse and worse with these updates and it kind of reflects in the Reviews so I see that people aren't too happy...
Reno: *not very interested* I think they're gonna be more annoyed if you keep rambling... *reads a magazine in the corner*
Naril: Not you too. I'm sorry, alright,... just because there is stuff I need to write in real life...
Reno: blah blah blah *turns page*
Naril: No fair...
Reno: Naril owns nothing. *grins as she turns her back* I looooove annoying her! Revenge is mine! XD
Chapter 9 - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I walk alone
I walk a...
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...
Green Day
Wall-market had been destroyed with the rest of Midgar, but the survivors had found an accommodating home in the more central Slum areas of the Edge. It was as if nothing had changed at all.
The redhead in its midst had changed though. Despite the still aching bruises and bump on his head, he had gone straight here from the WRO headquarters.
After the phone-call, he had not exchanged another word with the Wutainese King who had made to leave almost as soon as the technician had been taken away. After that he had hunted the databases for any information he could find.
Unfortunately, the WRO did not have access to all the files about Shinra's activities. So he would have to do some old-fashioned research.
His face was a blank slate as he took in the place that he might have thought of as something like home not so long ago. He ignored the familiarity for the better part of it and kept walking.
Street-rats were running past him and one even dared to try and steal his wallet. As soon as he felt the little hand slip into his jacket's pocket, his hand shot out to grab the skinny wrist of the girl that had followed him for sometime now.
"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that." He told the wide-eyed child, but let her go nonetheless. As she ran off, he took in her dirty, knotted mop of black hair and the ill-fitting clothes. It felt so familiar, he almost felt the scratch of old shoes and too big shirts.
It was this kind of thing that despite all their efforts to create this supposedly better world the WRO was powerless against. This part of the city would always exist. The ex-Turk saw the kid disappear into an alleyway before he turned away.
The prostitutes leaning out of windows were watching him walk down the streets rather greedily, but he paid them no heed at all. A few even started to approach him, but he simply dodged them on his way to the run-down bar in a dead-end. Some of them still knew him by name and called after him.
No doorman checked those visiting the shack, allowing him to pass right through unnoticed.
After ordering a much-needed glass of something that he doubted had been distilled legally, he studied the other customers present this early in the day. He was willing to bet that costumers at Lockharts bar were nothing like this.
Most of them were those who had not yet managed to get jobs through the WRO efforts, or probably never would. They could barely afford food, but still numbed themselves with alcohol. The smell of locoweed was in the air and it made him shiver involuntarily.
Finally his eyes fell on a corner with a cracked window. The table was cast into sparse light, but he would have recognised the occupier anywhere. He finished his glass and got up.
"Yo, Clive." He addressed the man slumped on the chair, making him jump in surprise at seeing someone stand over him like that. He blinked at the redhead lethargically. "Reno? Shiva! I thought you'd finally be dead." He slurred, taking another drag from the locoweed he was smoking.
"Yea, you know me, I'm a Turk. I'll survive anything." Reno sat back in the chair opposite the other man and took in the bloodshot eyes, the greasy hair and the lack of overall hygiene feeling decidedly repulsed. To think that this had been him about a year ago made him bristle.
"More like a cockroach." Clive grumbled, contemplating a few tendrils of smoke that surrounded him.
The familiar smell of the drug forced Reno to remind himself why he was here and to ignore any kind of temptation he might feel about starting his old habit again.
"Business good?" He ground out, trying not to give away how tense he felt.
"What d'you want, Turk?" Clive threw the last word at him like an insult.
The redhead took a long drink, hiding his smirk behind the glass. Apparently news did not travel fast about his new job-description. He was not going to correct the other man on his out-dated information.
"Nothing, unless you heard about someone interested in big quantities of mako." The redhead made it sound casual but kept a close eye on the man's reaction.
"What d'you take me for?" Clive asked, now more alert and casting the other a mistrusting look.
Reno decided to take it a step further. "We got reliable information you're one of the dealers."
It was a bluff. A bad one at that but it was pretty much his only chance to get some kind of information on the hunch he had since the encounter with the kidnappers.
The other's eyes narrowed. "Where'd you hear that?" He asked a little too quickly.
Suppressing a smile, Reno shrugged, leaning back in his seat. "Shinra's not as crippled as you lot think." He adjusted his jacket so that the man opposite him caught a glimpse of the EMR strapped to his arm underneath his sleeve. "Wanna tell me what those guys are up to?"
Clive visibly started to fidget. "I don't know man. I just got them the stuff. It's hard enough to get it. That's all."
"And you got no idea where they went with it?" Reno asked, pointedly ignoring the spliff smoking away in the ashtray apparently forgotten.
"I got an idea…" The drug-dealer admitted, but said nothing more.
Reno gave him an impatient glare. "If you think there's anything you'll get by keeping information from me other than a kick in the balls, you're sadly mistaken, by the way."
Clive seemed to be chewing on that for a moment, gauging the other man's seriousness. Eventually, the steely aqua-eyes seemed to convince him.
"I…I know they also got supplies and snow-gear." He told him a little reluctantly. When the ex-Turk shot him a look, he simply shook his head. "That's all I'm gonna tell you. They don't mess around."
Reno studied him a little longer, then got up. Before he left, he looked down at him. "If you're lying to me, you won't even know what's coming for you." He told him.
As he stepped out to the street, he took a deep breath, which despite the familiar stinks of the slums was the first clear air he got in what felt like ages. Just thinking about the drugs consumed in this bar made him gag now.
He was trying very hard not to get too worked up about his screw-up, but realised that he was failing miserably.
He gulped down the knot in his throat with some difficulty, just before his phone went off.
It was no number he recognised and for a moment he wondered if it was Godo wanting to give him more hell before he answered it.
"R-Reno?"
He almost dropped the phone. "Yuffie."
"T-Turkey…" The voice on the other line was too faint, too small. It did not fit the ninja he knew. The ex-Turk could feel his heart drop as a dark thought formed in his head.
"Are… you alright, princess?" He half-whispered, still frozen in place in the middle of the empty street. He had to deliberately relax the hand holding the phone, feeling how his knuckle must have turned white with the tight grasp.
"I…" He thought her heard her choke on a sob then, "I'm cold, Reno."
Aquamarine eyes started to burn with a fury that he forced back down just as quickly, instead focusing on the phone call.
"How did you get this phone?" He asked, trying to get back to the business at hand.
"Stole it." She croaked. He would have laughed had it be any other situation. Of course she would have stolen it.
"Good. That's good. Hold onto it. I gotta call Shelke and then we'll track your position, okay?" His body started moving without him really noticing, half-running back in the direction of Headquarters.
"O-okay…"
He liked the fact that she was so quiet even less than the chattering of her teeth he could hear over the connection.
"I'm gonna call you back as soon as I can." The redhead promised in what he hoped to be a reassuring voice despite the agitation bubbling up his throat.
"N-no!" She half-shouted, in her fear oblivious to the threat of being discovered.
"Please don't make me hang up! Please don't!" Her voice was breaking and something shattered inside of him that he had not even thought he still possessed.
"I'll call you back, princess. I promise it won't be long. Just… just hang in there, okay? If they hear you now, we can't locate you, so you gotta wait a little bit until I call you back when we're ready."
The sound of something dangerously close to a sob came from the other line. "O-okay." Her shaky voice finally replied.
"Alright, I'm gonna put the phone down now, so I can call Shelke to prepare everything. It'll be less than 20 Minutes, okay?"
There was a sniffle that sounded like the affirmative.
"You better pick up when I call you back." He had wanted to make it sound like a joke but it came out a lot more serious than he wanted.
He heard a choked sob again but also her whispered: "Yes."
He put down the phone.
tbc...
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