Chapter 10: Shadows of Past Mistakes
Reno ran out onto the roof of the building to find Demarath standing over Kadaj, who was trying desperately to breath despite the enormous gash across his chest. Reno rushed to the side of his old enemy and dropped to his knees next to him. Lifting Kadaj's upper half in some vain attempt to help, Reno could already see the young man's eyes clouding over like those of so many other lost comrades.
"Kadaj, Kadaj are you still with us?" Reno said desperately.
"Reno. I'm sorry I was no match for him. He's like Sephiroth; there is no pity, no regret, just hatred and a goal. I, I just couldn't win against him." Kadaj coughed up blood in an attempt to sit up.
"Don't move! You'll just die faster if you keep this up." Reno barked.
"Heh, its okay I've already died once, it isn't so bad. After all, if I hadn't, Mother wouldn't have given me this for you." Reno gazed at the plain silver locket Kadaj held up in his hand. Taking it from him, Reno flipped it open. On one side of the locket was a photo of Aerith, the flower girl Reno had been sent after so many times before, but had never succeeded in catching.
"I see, so that's why Sis sent you. Thank you Kadaj, you can return to the planet now. I'll handle the rest." The silver haired man smiled up at Reno before closing his eyes and disappearing as his body dispersed in a stream of green light. Getting to his feet, Reno tied the chain of the locket around his hand and stared at Demarath with eyes devoid of emotion.
The two stared each other down for what felt like an eternity before Reno finally spoke.
"Kadaj said that you're like Sephiroth. I know you're not as strong as he was, so that obviously means that you're just a threat to the planet. But even if you're not, you still attacked innocent people, hurt my friends and dragged up crap I really didn't need reminded of. So I'm going to put you where you belong, in the trash with the rest of our mistakes!" Reno rushed at Demarath, preparing a Fire cartridge as he went.
"Threat to the planet, maybe, a mistake, definitely, but trash, not in a million years." Demarath swept aside the hair over the right side of his face to reveal a glowing red orb in place of his right eye. As the materia glowed great pillars of ice rose up from the ground and moved to impede Reno. Swinging the Aerith, flames shot forward and cut down the towers in front of him. The two were finally face to face; their weapons clashing spectacularly as Reno barely avoided the razor sharp edge of Demarath's sword.
"So, you've got a materia implanted in your head, that's gross." Reno smirked at his stony faced adversary.
"Gross, but useful. Rise Yukishima!" Reno's face fell as the wind picked up around them and snow began to fall thickly from out of nowhere.
Reno hit the ground hard. Demarath had used a distraction to throw off the Turk, but by all standards, it was one hell of a distraction. Reno sat in shock as an enormous white tiger clawed its way up the side of the building, the great white wings on its back incapable of flight. He stared at the creature, noticing the two long sabre-tooth like fang that hung from its jaw and its enormous wings that seemed to be made from shards of ice that glittered in the moonlight even though the snow still poured from the heavens.
"What the hell is that?! I've never seen a summon like that before." Reno said, getting shakily to his feet.
"Well if Shiva is the Ice Queen, then Yukishima is the God of the frozen hell that awaits you." Demarath explained calmly, raising his sword in indication of the great beast.
"I see, so it's a powerful Ice based summon with blizzards and ice pillars as sub-magic. Okay, I'll admit my odds are pretty bad here, but having survived against a certain Chocobo haired Ex-SOLDIER not once, not twice, but four f**king times! I think I can manage an irate pussy cat and a blue haired sadist with an inferiority complex." Demarath didn't rise to Reno's insults, but simply gripped his sword tighter as his Summon moved to strike.
Reno dodged back as the creature lunged at him and sent another jet of fire flying forward. Yukishima growled, but showed no other sign of injury from the attack. Reno continued to move around in an attempt to avoid the next attack from the creature, but just as he thought he had a good rhythm going Demarath appeared before him and cracked him in the temple with the butt of his sword. Hitting the ground hard, Reno gripped his skull in both fury and pain.
"Son of a…Why cant you be like every other pansy that uses summons and let it do the work!" He hissed at the man who was now towering above him with his sword raised.
"Die!" Demarath smirked before bringing the sword down.
A howl of pain rung out in the night as the enormous sword pierced Reno's side and spilled considerable amounts of his blood across the cold metal surface they stood upon.
"I'm sorry, when I said die you must've thought it'd be quick. Well allow me to correct you." Demarath leaned on his sword and relished in the expression that came across his victim's face.
"You see, being a 'sadist with an inferiority complex' as you put it, I'm going to let you bask in the glory of the new world before I finish you." Reno forced his head off off the ground in order to look Demarath in the face. The two stared at one another once more until Demarath stood up straight, wrenched his sword from Reno's guts and banished his Summon back to whatever icy pit it crawled out of. Reno rolled over onto his front in pain as his organs shifted to the space the sword once occupied. Keeping one hand on his wound and pushing himself up onto his knees with the other, he was suddenly grabbed by the hair and dragged to the edge of the roof.
Throwing Reno face down in the snow, Demarath looked out over the darkened city.
"You see what's happening here? The tyrannical reign of Shinra finally ends tonight and the new world of anarchy begins. Tonight vengeance is mine and you along with every other worthless parasite that clings to this company dies." Reno forced himself up yet again, looking at the city he saw fires rage and buildings crumble as yet again the city fell to one of their mistakes. Demarath's sword gleamed with red as it was once again raised, but this time the blade drew parallel to Reno's neck. Swinging the blade sideways, Demarath expected blood to spray from the Turk's neck, but instead what he got was blood spurting from his own nose.
Having ducked the blade, Reno threw himself up with all his might into one stupendous head to head collision with the Black Phoenix leader.
"I'll admit we made mistakes, but the two major ones you've made really outweigh those. First off, you arrived about three years too late to teach us the error of our ways, someone beat you to it and second, you picked a fight with the Turks!" Reno drove forward, forgetting all vestiges of style or control and simple resorting to beating Demarath senseless with the Aerith. As he went to swing the finishing blow, Demarath caught his arm; the snow around them stained a deep red with their blood.
"The other one mustn't have told you, I regenerate." The marks that Reno had made against his enemy cleared up almost instantly and the only evidence that any damaged had even occurred was soaking in around their feet.
"Oh no, he told me, I've just been waiting for my hit points to drop."
"What?!" Reno gave a sly grin as he kicked Demarath back towards the edge of the roof. Reno rushed after him and launched himself into the air. As he prepared for his final strike, he thought to himself.
"I know I've made mistakes, but no way in hell am I going to let them hold me back and turn me into a vengeful ghoul like this guy. From now on I'll wear those scars with pride and protect the world you left for us. Hope you're proud, Sis." Reno glowed brightly with blue light, but it quickly faded and was replaced by a thin layer of pale green.
"Hey Demarath, say hi to Sephy for me. Cetra Revival!" White light burst from Reno and engulfed Demarath; it tore through the soldier and stripped him of all the mako than ran thick in his veins. When the light cleared the broad side of a certain black tonfa hit him hard in the jaw and sent him plummeting off the side of the building. Reno landed clumsily on the rooftop and dropped onto his back in exhaustion, the fight was done and he had won…hey that rhymes.
Several months passed and things were finally getting back to normality.
Reno, Rude and Elena all returned to duty after a month of paid vacation.
Doc Esprid had tried several times to get Reno to be a guinea pig for experiments, but failed as her little sister had given him the lab's day planner so he knew what to expect.
Sebastian lost all hearing in his right ear and chose to take an active retirement from the Turks, he now works as a tunnel blaster at the Corel mine and has never been happier.
Tseng, who thanks to his actions had to use a cane for the rest of his life, was to take four months paid vacation, but came back after five weeks when he heard Reno had somehow managed to swallow a pen cap on the job.
Rufus had new security put in place to stop mako enhanced people from setting foot inside the Shinra building, now only Reno has to worry about being attacked at work.
Tifa's bar was rebuilt courtesy of Shinra, but Reno's tab is still to be paid.
Finally, the Shinra power plant was up and running again after seven months of working off of an emergency station. Most people are still wondering why the emergency station wasn't used the night of the attack.