"'Ps, meet me at the old reactor in Gongaga November 24th at noon, I have something for you."" Rufus read the note out aloud before crumpling it up in his hand.
"November 24th? Well that's two days from now," Elena said, stating the obvious.
"What do you want us to do," Tseng asked.
"Do what he wants us to do," Rufus said, standing up and walking to a table at the side of his office. "Meet up with him Thursday at noon," he told us as he poured himself a drink.
"With all due respect sir-" I started but Rufus cut me off.
"I said, meet with him Thursday at noon," he said slowly and bitterly, articulating every word. He swallowed his drink and dismissed us.
I rolled my eyes and sat at my desk, crossing my arms. "I don't trust it," I said shortly.
"Huh?" Reno asked, sitting on my desk.
I dropped my shoulders and sighed, "Isn't it all a bit suspicious? I mean the guy's just stepping forward and being like "Hey, I know you have 5 Turks that could kill me in 10 different ways in a second flat, but why don't we have a little get together, it'll be a blast!"" I said, sarcasm oozing from my voice. "I don't know, it just sounds like a trap," I finished and leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms again.
Reno looked from me to the ground, thinking hard.
I let out a sigh another and combed my fingers through my hair.
"If this is a trap," Reno said, still staring at the floor, "Then at least we'll have an idea, we can at least be on edge for it." He looked at me and I nodded at him.
It was 11:30 by the time we landed outside Gongaga. It was 11:45 by the time all 5 of us reached the busted reactor. I still wasn't partially thrilled but like Reno said, at least both of us could be prepared, being sure to equip and arm us properly. The sky had broke way and finally it started to snow. I groaned inwardly, having to be stuck on this mission instead of enjoying the fresh snow.
As we walked closer, a figure of a man came into focus. His back was facing us but you could tell he was wearing a lab coat.
"I was afraid you wouldn't get the note," the man said as he turned around.
Tseng stopped, causing all of us to do so also, "You aren't Pulski," he said.
"And you aren't Rufus. I'm Eli," he said stepping towards Tseng and offering his hand.
"Your Pulski's assistant," I said, putting my hands on my hips. The snow was falling steadily now.
"You're new, aren't you? I haven't seen your face around," he said walking up to me to get a better look.
Reno step in front of me, "What do you want?" he asked him.
"Well, I'm not happy," he said, pacing in front of the group of us, hands clasped behind his back. "See that note wasn't for you guys, but for Rufus." He ran his hand over his hair, smoothing his sleeked brown hair back.
"Do you really think we're that stupid?" Elena asked him.
"No, I think you guys are just stupid enough. And I guess it's true what they say, you have to make the best out a bad situation. I still can take you guys for ransom at least," he said and snapped his fingers.
We all went into battle stance as a swarm of nearly 20 men with guns and armor surrounded us.
"Do you like?" Eli asked. "It's no where near Shinra's old army, but we don't want to become cocky like you guys. No just enough to protect us and carry out what needs to be done."
"Fuck," I said, gripping my sword tight, my back pressed against Reno's.
"So you have a choice, you can come with us, or we can shoot you dead here," Eli said, circling around us. "Either way, I still have fun."
"If we go with you, you'll just kill us anyway," Reno bitterly said.
Eli smiled at us, "Yes, but until then we can use you for leverage."
I took a deep breath, formulating a plan in my head. By now I had counted the number of shooter, 23 plus Eli.
"I have a plan," I whispered in Reno ear.
"Please, do share," he whispered back.
"Don't die and cover your eyes," I said as I took off running towards the circle of armed gunmen. I brought my sword up and down onto the neck of one, leaving 22 now left.
"Shoot her!" Eli yelled, as bullet's started after me.
Ducking behind a pile of metal from the broken reactor, I caught my breath as the bullets pounded the metal. Reaching into my jacket, I pulled out a flash bomb, throwing it over the metal and closing my eyes. After the boom and the flash I opened my eyes and stood up to see the gunmen rubbing there eyes, temporarily blinded from the blast. Pulling my gun, I shoot 4 in the head, and the rest of the team had gotten to work to help me fight the rest of the attackers. We were down to 2 left when Eli called off the attack. They started to run but I aimed my gun and one by one taking them down. I aimed at Eli, having him on target but Tseng gently pushed my arm done. "Leave him go," he told me.
I let out a sigh as we made out way back to the helicopter.
"What the?" Reno said as the copter came into view through the snow. "Shit, no!" he yelled and started running to the helicopter that was now being started. As we ran closer it started taking off and at the controls were two men that were dress identical to the ones we just battled with. Under the copter now was Eli hanging from the rope ladder they had down.
"What, you didn't think I would send all my men after you? No that would be stupid incase you did kill them," he let out a laughed, climbing up a little. "And besides, it looked like the plan work."
"Plan?" Reno yelled over the roar of the helicopter trying to jump for the ladder, but it was just out of reach for him.
"Well, we have a lot of the essentials we need. Shinra's files, some old Shinra employees, were on a way to a good company. One thing was lacking, in order to get the job done, all we needed was a good mode of transportation. It's rather a drag having to use public transportation. This helicopter will be perfect. The only thing better was if you guys didn't have Little Miss Kick Ass here, then you would have fallen for our trap completely and we would have had hostages too." He yelled, pointing to me. "But I guess this will be enough. Bye!" He finished smugly, climbing up into the copter.
Reno started chasing after it as it flew off, throwing rocks and yelling profanity at them.
"Dammit, dammit dammit!" he yelled, falling to his knees and pounding the ground with his hands.
I knelt down beside him and rubbed his back with my hand. "Now what," I asked, looking up at Tseng.
He shook his head. "The only thing we can do is make our way to Costa del Sol, it's has planes we can pay our way on or at least ships to get to Junon," he said looking off into the distant.
"But how do we get there?" Elena asked. "We can't walk, not in this weather anyway."
She was right; the snow was falling harder and had started to accumulate on the ground.
"Let's go to Gongaga, at least for the night," Rude suggested.
Tseng nodded, "Right, we can find some way to get there, maybe a train or something."
"There's a train that comes through here everyday at 8 am, looks like we're stuck here til then. That's is unless Tseng, Rude, or Elena can find something else," I said to as I walked into the inn room we rented. Reno was already in there, sitting and staring out the back window.
I sat down in a chair and let out a sigh before looking up at him. "Are you...crying?" I asked him, looking at his worn face.
"What? No, don't be stupid," he said, turning his head away from me to see.
I felt bad, I may have only known Reno for a few months, but the way he talked about the helicopter and the spark he got in his eyes when he got fly, I could tell he loved that thing. I got up and kneeled next to him, putting my hands on his thigh, "Reno, I promise you, we'll get it back."
He looked down at me, I rested my chin on the back my hands that were still on his leg.
"Thanks," he said, giving me a smile, "And I wasn't crying," he told me, tapping me on my nose with him finger.
I stood up and walked around the room
"So, we're stuck in this shanty town for the day," Reno said, stretching his arms.
"Looks like it," I replied opening drawers to the dresser in the room to see if there was anything in them.
After finding nothing I turned back to Reno who had gotten up from his seat. "Come on, lets go check out the weapons shop here."
I looked through the glass case at the small display of throwing weapons they had.
"Why is that sword your favorite?" Reno asked, examining the dagger he had picked up.
"What?" I said, turning towards him and leaning on the display.
"Way back in Firon, remember, that bird stole it and you had to risk your life to get it back," he told me, refreshing my memory.
"Oh yeah," I let out a laugh.
"Is it a family treasure or something?" He asked, putting the dagger down and looking at me. "I remember one SOLIDER who wouldn't use his sword because it was a family heirloom."
"No, far from...family," I said, whispering it almost. I waited a few seconds before I continued, "The pagoda challenge in Wutai, you know, where you have to fight the bosses on each level?" I said to him.
"Yeah, sounds familiar."
"Well, I defeated it and beside the regular royalties you get with it, since I was the youngest to every conquer it, I got that sword which was said to be the perfect sword ever crafted, made from an emperor's old precious metals, and blah blah blah," I explained, waving it off.
"So it's a pretty special sword huh?" he asked.
"Yep, it's a pretty big deal," I said, sauntering up to him.
"How old were you?" Reno questioned.
"13."
"13!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Yeah, but anyway, beside the whole reason to why I got the sword, it is a really good weapon. Balanced, sharp, all that jazz. It's lasted, what? 14 years almost."
"I'm still amazed you did that at the age of 13," he said as we walked out of the shop. It was dark now and snow had stop falling. It had fallen at least 4 inches and covered my feet, telling me it was time to start wearing boots.
"Hey Annie," Reno said.
"Huh?" I said looking at him in time to feel a snowball hit me in the neck.
I let out a scoff as my jaw dropped in surprise, "You jerk."
He put his hands up, "You love me."
"Yeah, this much," I said scooping up some snow and throwing it right in his face.
I crossed my arms and gave him a triumphant smile.
"You know, allow me to be the bigger person, let's call a truce," he said, cleaning his face off.
I shook his hand that he held out for me and started walking back to our inn. Within seconds of turning my back towards him I felt his arms wrap around my waist and pick me up in the air.
"Reno!" I yelled, trying to make it sound like a warning but it came out as a girly scream. I started kicking the air trying to get him to put me down but instead it cause my one heel to fly off as he spun me.
"Oh you cunt!" I shrieked as he threw both of us down into the cold snow.
"Language young lady," he said to me, rolling over to look at me.
I lay there panting for a little bit before sitting up. I looked down at Reno and flung some more snow in his face.
"Thanks, yo," he said, nodding his head sarcastically.
"You deserve it," I said smugly, both of us sitting in silence for a while.
"I have a question," he said to, rolling back on his back, putting his hands behind his head and looking at me from the corner of his eyes.
"Shoot," I said looking up at the sky.
"What's the deal with you and your family. You never talk about them and in the store, when I mentioned your family, you got quiet. Why?"
"Well, to be fair, you don't talk about yours," I said, looking over at him.
"Yeah, but, that's different," he said looking up at the sky.
I let out a laugh, "How is it any different?"
"Because no one cares and it's not important," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I care and I think it's important," I said, lying back down in the snow. "So tell me."
"Well," he said, trying to find the word, "I never knew my dad and my mom and I never had a really good relationship. I haven't talked to her since I was 15." He kept his eyes focused on the sky, only looking down at me when he finished.
I felt awful, I had a soft spot for boys that had a rough past like that, "Reno, I-I'm sorry, it must have been rough." I sat up and looked down at him still lying there.
He cocked his eyebrows up, "Yeah, but, it's whatev, yo. So, I shared, your turn," he said, nudging me in the arm.
"It's no big deal really now, they were killed when I was barely even a year old," I said, brushing it out like nothing.
"No big deal?" Reno said, sitting up quickly. "What the- that's terrible, I'm so sorry."
"What?" I asked, "No seriously, I'm totally cool with it." Cool with it? That was long shot, but after about 27 years, I've learned to act nonchalant towards the whole thing. I always pushed it out of my mind, and yeah, maybe that's not the healthiest thing, but it's been getting me by.
I looked over at Reno, his face look concerned, "Seriously, I don't even remember them, and beside if they hadn't died then I would have been shipped to the only orphanage available at the time in Wutai. And had I not gone there, I wouldn't have been put in their training, then I wouldn't have become the person I am today and then I wouldn't be here laying in the snow with you," I said to him, giving him a warm smile, and truly meaning it.
"You never know though," he said to me, smiling back, "I think we were bound to cross paths."
"And with that said, if the children are done playing, I suggest heading to bed since we need to be up early for the train," Elena said, walking up to us and handing me my shoe.