I LIVE! -falls over- Real life sucks, y'know that? I took an unplanned vacation from my fanfics, but I'm back. For real this time. I come bearing a new WCDYB chapter as an apology gift. What makes up for all? Abusing Reno, naturally!

Oh, and I saw Advent Children in English. Long review short -It'sgood, butstick to Japanese, it saves you the horrors of Cid with a southern drawl. I wishIwas kidding. They ruined a lot of voices, but Cid was the worst.

Anywhoo, on with the story! (and thanks for he reviews, as always!) Anjoy!

The first few steps were shaky, unsure, the next few were frantic, rushed, and the rest felt like a mix of agony and euphoria. I was hurting all over, but the mere thought of walking to freedom made me shiver with joy. With Rude's assistance, I rushed with him out of the lab. Despite my relief and happiness of leaving at last, questions spouted from me almost immediately.

"Where's Hojo?" I asked, glancing around us in a nervous manner, and almost loosing my footing. Even as I stumbled, I continued. "What about the security? Where could we possibly go?"

"Reno…" Rude said in a quiet, calming tone as he helped me regain my balance. "Let's just focus on getting you out of here, alright?"

I held on to my friend's blazer for a moment, letting out a stressful, but appreciative sob. A strong hand ruffled my hair lightly. "You're gonna be okay."

I looked at Rude, fighting the urge to have a full breakdown right there. The mix of joy and fear was deadly, as my heart was going faster than ever. Rude just gave a light, reassuring smile before gently tugging me along out of the lab.

As I finally saw the bright hallway outside of the laboratory, I squinted my eyes against the lights and looked down the hallway. Elena was speeding towards us, running faster than I had ever seen her move before.

"Reno!" she exclaimed in a soft, hushed manner before halting and pulling me into a gentle embrace. This time she sobbed several times, mumbling into my blazer about how glad she was to see that I was alright. She pulled back to look at me, her joy melting into a frown. "You've gotten so thin…"

I looked down at myself. Pulling the tattered remains of my shirt tight around my middle revealed the weight lost in the past God-knows-how-long. I was skinny as anything, and the outline of my ribs was almost visible even under the fabric. I felt a hand on my face, and I looked to Elena.

"You look so ill, Reno." She informed me. I guessed that I would be walking out looking like hell, but Elena looked very upset by it. I forced a smile as Rude urged us to move down the hallway quickly.

"If I had known you were gonna show up, I would have prettied up a bit."

Elena just latched on to me for another second or two, again telling me that she was glad to see me and that she missed me.

We rushed out of the ShinRa building, and I was shocked to see that there were no guards, no security, and no reaction to my escape what so ever. We went out side doors to the building, without incident.

"What the hell happened?" I asked as they helped me down the dark alley. "There's nobody in there!"

Rude and Elena exchanged glances, silent for a moment.

"…Guys?"

"The company has gone downhill." Rude explained, continuing to rush our small group out of the alleyway. "People have been fighting back, and the whole corporation is dwindling. A couple of the executives are dead." He said in a quiet tone.

I whirled around, and my friends had to steady me as that made me loose my balance. I looked up at Rude with deep concern. Panic swelled up in me.

"Reeve-"

"He's alright." Elena told me, sparking a sigh of relief on my part. They helped me out of the alley, and towards a dark van parked near the building. I saw Tseng waiting outside of it and hurried my pace. Forgetting all formality, I almost tackled my former boss in joy of seeing him alright. I almost gave in to tears again, but thankfully I did not.

"Tseng!" I exclaimed as they pried me off of him. The dark-haired man smiled warmly before stepping closer to me and getting a look of deadly seriousness. I paled and tried to step back, saying his name again in a bit more of a nervous tone.

In a cheap move that would remind one of what an older sibling would use, Tseng grabbed two fingers on my right hand and twisted sharply, forcing me to yelp and my body to twist a bit as well. Any more pressure and he could have easily broken them.

"Sir!" Elena and Rude sounded and looked appalled, but he ignored them. Intense eyes stared into mine, piercing and threatening.

"What did I tell you NOT to do?" he demanded, voice in a low growl that made my insides go cold. I tried to struggle free, but it was no use. I tried to reason with him to let go, but he only asked the question again, in a more frightening tone.

"Leave…" I paused with a wince from another failed attempt to free my fingers. "the hospital."

Tseng's grip tightened and I let out a whimper. "And what did you do?"

I tore my gaze away from the fiery, almost enraged eyes of Tseng and looked to the ground. Sounding like a child caught drawing on the walls, I mumbled my response. "I left the hospital."

My fingers were released and I nursed them with my other hand while cursing softly. Tseng always kept a tight lid on his temper, and I had learned long ago to not push my luck with him. But when the wutaiian man lost it, he really lost it. Perhaps that was what made him a good leader, he knew how to intimidate calmly, and fight fiercely. I looked up at him again, but was both relieved and shocked to see a light smile. I dared to mirror him as the corners of my lips pulled lightly.

"You gonna ask what I learned from this?"

Tseng set a hand on my shoulder, and I flinched a little, half expecting him to smack me upside the head in a brotherly fashion.

"Don't think I'm done giving you hell yet." He told me, although there was lightness in his voice. How many times had I heard that before?

I was about to respond, but our attention was distracted by a flash of light and a deafening sound. It was an explosion, followed by loud sirens or alarms. We looked up to see the top of the ShinRa tower engulfed in flames and crumbling. We all seemed to loose the colour in our faces, and Tseng half staggered a bit in the direction of the destruction.

"The president!" he exclaimed staring up at the top of the building in horror. Debris began falling down to the streets, crashing down all around us with a force similar to that of meteors. Rude pulled Tseng by his blazer out of the way right before he would have been hit by a mass of bricks and broken glass. The vehicle had already been hit by several pieces of fallen building, leaving it broken and useless within seconds. Looking around in a frenzy, we all exchanged frantic glances before Elena found a sewer grate. She pointed it out and we rushed over, lifting it and falling down into the safety of the sewers. Tseng had suffered a small cut on his face, and Elena had been hit on the shoulder by a small falling piece of brick or cement, but we were otherwise lucky in our narrow escape.

Tseng leaned against the cold cement wall in the dark tunnel, oblivious to the fact that we were all ankle-deep in water and god knows else what. He ran a hand through his hair, staring into nothingness for the longest time.

"The president…" he said again, except his voice was so quiet it was barely audible. "The company. Everything. It's gone." His breathing was heavy and shaky, like he had ran a marathon or something of that sort.

Elena helped our leader straighten up. "Sir, what was that?"

"Weapon." We all turned to Rude, who was staring up at the faint light seeping through the sewer grate. "It fired at Midgar."

The tone of dread in his voice made me more sick than the actual response. "Weapon?"

This time everyone looked in my direction. "You missed a lot Reno…" Elena informed me, bowing her head a little.

"Sephiroth summoned a Meteor, and the Planet released the Weapons to fight back."

It seemed to hit me like a brick wall. I almost threw up again, but I simply just doubled over with gagging. I wanted to Rude was at my side immediately.

"We're doomed." I coughed, looking up at my friends. "We're fucking done for." All optimism on my part had been erased months ago, so the looks I received had no effect on me. It was true, and we all knew it.

We all paused and looked down the tunnel as we heard voices – familiar ones. I straightened up, knowing the voices better than I thought.

"Who's down there?" A sharp voice echoed off the walls. Despite the current panic, shock, and frustration, I smiled lightly and began half running and half stumbling through the shallow water.

"Reno!" my friends chased after me, calling after me to come back. But I failed to hear them, I was too overjoyed with hearing the familiar voices.

It was not until I was face-to-face with Avalanche that I realised what was happening. Everyone stopped dead. Turks facing Avalanche. There was a long silence, save for the sounds of moving water at our feet. I felt overwhelmed with joy and guilt at the same time. This was not bound to turn out well. Cloud Strife gave me a suspicious look, and I took a nervous step back. I knew that being seen with my former co-workers was a bad thing, but my tattered clothes and sunken appearance must be a bit of a giveaway of the truth. I slumped my shoulders and looked at Vincent, the only member of the group who was not staring at me in a negative manner.

"Aeris…" I said in a low voice. "Did she really…"

"Yes." Vincent told me before I could finish the question. Once again my stomach and chest contracted painfully, and I winced. I cursed Sephiroth's name several times before I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at Vincent, tears streaming down my sunken cheeks.

"You're sickly thin." He said, staring at me with a mix of compassion and anger. "Hojo did this to you." His face turned dark and he turned to the others, and they all nodded. He then looked to the rest of the Turks and they nodded as well. It was like a universal understanding, much like the one me and my three co-workers shared. Cloud lowered his sword and got an almost angry look. Tifa looked at the blonde, almost afraid.

"…Cloud?"

"Let's go get the fucking bastard."