Chapter #21: The Mortality of Names
By Miyamashi
Miya's Note: Huzzah! Finally, after much writer's block and very little free time on my part, here's Chapter 21! This one deals with some pretty hard stuff, so be warned. It gets very, very dark in places.
On an interesting note, this one does have some back story on some of the minor characters. Hurray!
Oh, and because this site now has the loverly review reply system, I don't have to take up valuable space with replying to your comments here. Sorry if they come a bit delayed, though. I'll try to keep up.
And to all of my non-member fans, thank you as well! Your reviews mean so much to me.
It was interesting how quickly things could change inside of Shinra Incorporated. One moment, the thoughts running through Reno's mind revolved around the fact that one boss had just tried to kill himself and that another (who had just killed Reno and subsequently brought him back to life) was again in his good graces and could once again be called his lover.
The next, a box was shoved into Reno Kiribani's arms by the taller of the scientists he had seen burying the body of said lover-boss' ex-doctor.
"Take it! Do something with it! Just don't let the Professor find it, because he was going to destroy it…"
"Uh, thanks, guy, but I don't need any of this crap about running away from mad scientists. I've got enough on my plate as it is, so give your box to somebody who can handle it."
The scientist grabbed Reno around the shoulders and shook him desperately, watching the package carefully as he did so. "Take the thing, before it's destroyed forever. We've done something great, and I can't allow it to just…to just…"
Reno just stood, wide eyed, holding the package and looking around nervously. The scientist let him go and ran for it.
"Hey! Come back here! I don't want…"
It was too late, because the scientist rounded a corner, and Reno was unsure of which one.
"Uh, Rufus, you won't believe what happened to me in the hallway just now."
"Hit me," said the blonde dully, pouring himself a tumbler of vodka. "Liquor? What do you like? Wine? Rum? Brandy? Champagne?"
"Scotch."
"Done." Rufus pulled a bottle of the most pricy-looking scotch Reno had ever seen from a cupboard and looked at the redhead for the first time since he had entered the room. "What's in the box?" he asked, pouring Reno's drink into a second tumbler.
"I, uh…don't know."
"Mew," answered the box.
Rufus tensed, and half of Reno's glass of scotch ended up on the floor. "Where did you get that?"
"Scientist?" the redhead answered meekly.
"Mew," said the box.
"Did Hojo put you up to this? Give the fucking coeurl back to whoever gave it to you. I don't want it!"
"Is that what this thing is?" Reno opened the box slowly, only to find two bright, yellow eyes staring back up at him.
"Mew?" asked the eyes.
"It looks like a kitten of some sort."
"Kitten, puppy, some hell-beast crazy hybrid of the two; I. Don't. Care. Get rid of it."
"I don't know. I think it's kind of cute. Can we keep it?"
"Reno, you are testing my patience. Go drown the damned thing or something." Rufus felt very much like a mother trying to reason with a very spoilt child. "Kittens. If this is what my dark nation is coming to, then I think I would be better off jumping out of my office window and killing myself."
"I think a pet would be good for you. You know, something to keep you company when I'm not with you. Granted, I'm sexier than the…coeurl, you called it?…but it might be nice to have around."
"Reno."
"I think they were gonna kill it."
"Reno."
The redhead took the coeurl out of its box, and it jumped from his arms and wrapped itself around Rufus' ankles, much like it had in Hojo's laboratory.
"Look, Rufus. It likes you."
"Well, I don't like it. Take it before I kick it."
In hearing this, the creature wrapped even more tightly around the blonde's leg, digging its claws into his calf. Luckily for the black kitten-puppy, Rufus had a high tolerance to pain.
"Fine. You can be so damn grumpy sometimes," murmured Reno, trying to pry the tiny creature from his partner's leg. It hissed at him.
Then it scratched him, and bit him, and Reno was about ready to kick it, too.
It was interesting how quickly things changed inside of Shinra Incorporated, because, at that moment, a large, familiar, and malicious grin spread across Rufus Shinra's face.
"Perhaps I do like it, Reno. Maybe it will do well for me to take in a pet to keep guard over our apartment. It will keep out any obnoxious guests." The coeurl mewed happily as the blonde picked it up and looked into its tiny face. Two antenna-like tentacles curled contentedly around each other from the tips of the creature's ears.
"You are so dead, Rufus!" the redhead yelled jokingly, knocking his lover over onto the bed with a laugh.
It was the happiest Reno had ever seen the Vice President as they mock-wrestled over the mattress, the diminutive coeurl bouncing merrily around them. Rufus laughed, and he smiled, and his eyes lit up like they were on fire. He fell back, his arms and legs sprawled over the bed awkwardly. He looked like a complete fool, but Reno thought it was positively beautiful.
If this--a laugh and a kitten--was what Rufus' dark nation was coming to, Reno liked the way the future looked.
"Janice, tell Scarlet that I need to see her in my office, immediately."
"Yes, Sir."
"So, what happened to it?" inquired Rufus to the redheaded Turk, who sat on top of the desk with a worried look on his face.
"What? You're not mad at me? I thought you'd kill me for losing the mag-rod."
"I am much more angry at Scarlet for making a weapon that would stop working in the middle of a vital mission."
"I dunno. Things might've been different if the thing had actually worked, and then we wouldn't have been able to spend such quality time together."
"And maybe you could have stunned Tseng's sister and avoided my having to kill her. Then, Tseng wouldn't be in the infirmary with a broken arm, hanging onto the edge of sanity."
"Yeah, but…"
"But my point is that we can't rely on 'maybes' and 'might have beens', because there's no telling how things could have gone on that mission, and the failure of your weapon, under different circumstances, could have very easily meant your life. It almost did, as it was. And, in a different mission, had it failed like it did, it could have meant Rude's life, or…"
"I get the point, Mom."
It was at that moment, as Rufus flicked Reno off angrily, that Janice came through the door, looked at Reno puzzledly, and gave Rufus the notice that Yvonnecka Scarlet was waiting to enter.
"Let her in."
Reno jumped off of the desk and backed away from it. He had seen Rufus angry and wasn't particularly looking forward to seeing it again, although the rage wasn't aimed at him.
"Yes, Vice President Rufus, Sir, is there something I can…do for you?" Scarlet slurred in what seemed like an attempt to be seductive. Rufus thought she sounded drunk.
"Yes, Scarlet, you could very well drop that sickening act around me. It may work on my father, but I am immune to your…" Rufus waved his hand in the air, trying to find the right way to put what he was thinking.
"Feminine wiles?" interjected Reno.
Both Scarlet and Rufus stared at the redhead with a look that clearly stated, "Stay out of this conversation."
Rufus changed subjects, turning once again from Reno to the blonde woman in front of him, whose red dress so aptly fit her surname. "Now," he said forcefully, distracting the Shinra weapon's specialist away from Reno, toward whom she was winking suggestively, "I need to see your plans for the electro-mag rod. I understand from Reno here that the weapon suddenly failed to work in a time when he needed it most."
"Sir, the electro-mag rod was a prototype…"
Scarlet jumped as Rufus slammed his fist against the desk. "I don't fucking care! That is unacceptable, Scarlet! I want an explanation and a way to fix it now, before I decide to show you just how little of an impact it would make on my life to make sure that you never laid foot in this building, Midgar, or any other company property again, including any and all of the cities in which we have stakes."
"Weapon development is a delicate process. I can't be expected to just hand you a perfectly operable weapon out of thin air…"
"I understand this, Scarlet, but what I want to know is why, exactly, you handed that particular weapon to me if it was just a prototype."
Scarlet found it quite impossible to answer that question.
"Well?" Rufus hissed, standing and tapping his fingernails on the desk.
"I…well, I just…uh…"
"Out!" yelled Rufus, shooing the woman out of his door roughly. "Don't come back until you come up with a way to fix your idiotic mistake!"
The door slammed, and Reno started laughing, quietly at first, then to a bemused chuckle, and finally to all-out guffaws that triggered the blonde to turn around so quickly that it caused the laughter to cut off like it had been suddenly unplugged.
"What the hell is so funny?" growled Rufus, striding quickly over to face the redhead, who backed up, a nervous half-smirk still on his face.
"Scarlet?"
"And why?"
Reno shrugged.
"I don't see anything even remotely entertaining about what just transpired in this room."
"Uh, so I guess I don't either, huh?" Reno chuckled slightly, and then caught himself and stopped.
Rufus stared at him for a moment, before the corners of his mouth tugged upward. "You are so amazingly gullible."
Reno's frown grew into a lopsided scowl that made him look a bit like an annoyed teenager. "And you are such a prick."
Rufus pushed Reno against the wall with his body. "I don't know how long it's going to take for her to perfect a new electro-mag rod," he said, running his hands through the redhead's hair.
"So, what do I do?"
"Can you use any other weapons?"
"I dabble in knife-fighting, and the swords we used in SOLDIER were pretty easy to work with. I could kind of use a machine gun, too, but that's just because I could just open fire until I hit something."
"I should teach you, then."
"Teach me what?"
"How to shoot. That information could be useful later."
"You're gonna try to teach me how to use a gun before the next mission? That would take a miracle!"
"I am a man of miracles, Reno. At least, that's what they say."
"Who?"
"The people."
Reno stopped for a moment, and looked into Rufus' eyes. There was a glint in them; for once, something Reno could see that made Rufus happy. But, as with all things but one, this was not the kind of happy that you think of when you see children laughing or people enjoying a good meal. No, this was Rufus-happy; that odd manic pleasure that could only be found in the kind of man who was too high up to be able to see the truly happy people. To him, they were probably tiny, like ants.
True happiness was beneath Rufus Shinra, thought Reno.
He remembered the people the Vice President had been talking of. He had known them once--been them once. He had never known a name. He just knew the white messiah.
No, the white god.
"Reno, would you stop staring at me like that?" Rufus hissed sharply, his face morphing completely. "I don't need you worshipping me, too."
And he walked out of his own office doors, leaving only a small gesture to beckon the redhead to follow.
"Too late," Reno whispered to himself.
"Now, I don't want you to try shooting from here just yet," said Rufus calmly.
Reno pouted slightly.
"I have something to show you first, Reno, so don't look at me like that. As of now, you have no skill whatsoever, and don't deny it. You are positively pathetic."
"Alright, so what do you want me to do, oh mighty teacher?"
"I want you to hold that gun, jump over that wall right there, walk up to the target, and shoot it at point blank. Now, I don't want you to shoot to kill. I want you to shoot where you think would debilitate it most without it being fatal."
"Why at point blank?"
"Because I am making a point, and you can't do it from here."
"Fine." Reno did as Rufus instructed, shooting the target, a full-body cardboard silhouette, in the left knee.
"Any particular reason you picked that knee, Reno?"
"I just thought it would hurt most."
"Good. Now come back here, and set the gun down on top of the wall."
"Alright." Reno did, looking back at his mentor skeptically. Before he realized what Rufus was doing, the Turk had a cut through his pants across the same knee he had shot on the dummy.
"Fuck!" was all that the redhead could choke out as he dropped to the ground in front of the blonde. Rufus grabbed his hair and forced their eyes to meet.
"The first thing that you must learn, Reno Kiribani, is that the first place a shooter generally attacks is his own biggest weakness. You have had problems with that knee in the past, haven't you?"
Reno kind of squeaked and tried to nod his head.
When I learned this, the first thing that I started to do was to target myself. The first place I always aimed was the hand. My hands have always been weak, so I had to change that. Before you can learn to shoot, you need to learn how to pinpoint others' weaknesses, rather than your own, and to overcome the things that they can use against you.
"Excuse me, Rufus, but I can't do that if I don't know how to aim," Reno managed to force out, pushing the blonde's hand out of his hair and standing, using his uninjured leg for support.
"And what's the point of being able to aim if you don't know what your target is?"
"I'll just shoot 'em in the head. Since when does a Turk not have to kill?"
"When someone gets in the way, like Liu Takawa-li."
"And you didn't have to cut me. You could have just told me, like any normal teacher."
"I'm not normal, Reno."
"And you're not gonna be able to teach me how to shoot before the next mission. It's impossible. I've tried. I have no aim."
"Shoot me."
"And…….What?" Reno stepped up to his lover and poked him in the forehead. "I know you're a fucking psychopath, but what's this shit about 'shoot me' and stuff all about? I swear, I don't know how you do it, but you get more nuts every time I see you."
"Shut up, stand behind the counter, like you would normally, and shoot me," Rufus continued, jumping the counter and standing where the targets would be.
"I can't, Rufus, you nutcase. Not only are you my boss, you're my…"
"That's an order, Reno."
"I'm not gonna shoot you."
"Just trust me, and fucking do it. Imagine you're on a mission to kill me, as my father is angry at me for some recent, classified events, and you are on the job. According to your job description, you would have to listen to the highest ranking official--The President--and complete your task fully and without hesitation."
"Wouldn't I be able to cop out, like Tseng does, since my personal biases could compromise the mission?"
"Father has ordered you, because he takes a sick pleasure in watching people he dislikes suffer, and you are very much disliked by him."
"This sounds too fucking realistic. I don't like it."
"You're not supposed to."
"I can't do it."
"You have to, or he'll kill you."
"I've already died once, and I'd do it again to keep from having to shoot you."
"How noble," the blonde drawled sarcastically. "Alright, say that you have to shoot me, or I'll shoot you instead. I've killed you once, and I can do it again as well."
Reno's eyes widened as the Vice President pulled a pistol from inside of his jacket and aimed. "Too realistic. Too fucking realistic, Rufus. You're starting to really creep me out. Is this a real mission, or are we really just training. Tell me we're training."
"Sometimes you have to train with a life or death situation to get any real benefit from it."
Reno held up the gun and clenched his teeth, aiming at Rufus' right hand--the one clenching his weapon.
And he fired.
Some blood splattered from where the bullet grazed flesh.
"Good. Very good, Reno."
"I shot you. I really just fucking shot you, Rufus! What were you thinking?"
"Yes, Reno. You shot me. You aimed, you fired, and you shot, going subconsciously straight for the point that I told you was my weakest, and you hit."
"I hurt you."
"You shot me, but you didn't hurt me. It was just a scratch, and you must remember: I told you that I had to eliminate my hands' vulnerability. I've built up quite a resistance to pain over the years."
"I shot you," Reno stammered out again, amazed that he had actually done it, and more at the fact that he had done it successfully.
"Your problem is need. If you need to hit it, you will. If the need is not great enough, you will miss. Normal training isn't good enough for you. It has to be real. Problem solved." Rufus pulled a bandage from his coat pocket and tied it around the shallow wound. He jumped back over the counter, stepped up to the redhead, and wordlessly pulled the Turk's head back and stole a fierce kiss before walking into the elevator with a malicious smirk and a small wave of his injured hand.
"That was too easy," Reno mused to himself. "He has to have done something to me. It can't be that easy."
The Turk stopped, looking down at the gun with a grimace. "Only Rufus Shinra."
He tried to shoot a standing target and failed.
President Shinra looked grimly at his reflection in his pristine bedroom mirror. He adjusted his suit, fiddled with the square of silk in his breast pocket, and slicked down a piece of wayward hair.
Perfection, all of it. Not a speck, not a spot, not a fiber out of place.
He turned his body slightly to look at his profile. As he turned his head to follow, only one eye remained facing the mirror. The other stared forward blankly with his head.
He turned back toward the mirror and put a finger up to his glass eye. The lid over it didn't close without the nerves under to warn it to shut.
The tiny scar on the back of his hand barely showed.
But what burned his vision the most was the image of his own mortality, carved into his chest under that perfect, red suit and scarred permanently into his mind.
Some day, he would die, and be replaced by that heathen of a son.
The name of Shinra would be dead, and Rufus would be the one they would remember.
She had named him.
Aldous Hojo looked at his hands. They were frail and thin, the skin over them drawn and paper-like. The blue-green veins under that skin shone out of them; color in a map of white and gray.
They shook as he held the scalpel. The tiny incision he made into his specimen wasn't as straight as he used to make it.
Aldous Hojo realized with a sudden horror that he was old.
He had been young and handsome once. He had stood tall and proud and imposing over the other scientists since before he had been head of the department. He looked like a man with potential, and he showed that potential in his experiments and his successes.
Back then, he had a beautiful wife, and to him, she was his biggest success. She was a scientist, too, and just as passionate as he.
Her name was Lucrecia.
He said the name aloud, and it rang back callously at him from the laboratory walls, so differently from how it had haunted his mind and warmed it like a drug when he had loved her.
Loved. Aldous Hojo had loved once, but love was as dead to him now as the cold specimen on the table and his even colder hands.
She had killed it. She took his love in the form of their unborn son and she stole it away and gave it to another man.
His name was Vincent Valentine.
She kissed this man, and she slept with him, and she told him she loved him. Hojo knew it by the way her lips had become frigid to him, her body stopped shivering for him when she laid in his bed.
By the way she couldn't look at him when she said "I love you."
As his love for her died, so did the son. He watched the tiny being in Lucrecia's womb as it began to wither away.
And, like with his love, a desperate Hojo tried to save his son by any means necessary.
The beast's name was Jenova.
Hojo himself had been the beast's first host. He had injected himself with her cells, and she had spoken to him, warmly and with the voice of Lucrecia before her betrayal. He used her to delude himself into believing she still loved him.
She used him to take their son, and to punish Lucrecia for what she had done to him.
Their son, his and Jenova's, who would outlive both his father and biological mother to take over their scientific legacy.
His name was Sephiroth.
She had named him.
Rufus' office was quiet. Too quiet for Reno's liking. The sound of the keys on the blonde's computer keyboard weren't enough to ease his worry.
"I need to see Rude before he goes on his next mission," said Rufus unenthusiastically, not bothering to look up from his work.
"Okay."
"Would you ask Janice to call him up here, or could you possibly retrieve him yourself?"
"I'll talk to Janice. Can I stay in here while you talk to him, or do you want me to leave?"
"It doesn't matter. It is Turk business, so you may hear it if you wish."
"Alright."
The redhead returned a few minutes later with the message that Rude would be up shortly.
"Very well."
When Rude Mannheim arrived, Reno could tell that he was not happy to see that Reno was hanging around the Vice President's office, and even less happy that he himself had to be there. "What is it, Sir?"
"I just need to make sure that you understand exactly what you are looking for."
"Yes, sir."
Reno flipped through the briefing that Rude had sat on the edge of Rufus' desk.
"You are not to make it known that you are affiliated with the Turks or with Shinra Incorporated. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Also, I understand from Tseng that you have a few issues that you need to resolve with me personally, and that they also concern your coworker here. Is that correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"Alright. Then resolve them." Reno, who was by that time looking up from the papers in his hands, could tell that Rufus knew exactly what was coming, and that he couldn't care less about how Rude felt on the matter.
"I would like you to encourage Reno to stop seeing you privately. He won't listen to me, but I know this is bad for Reno, his job, and the rest of us. I don't think it's smart for you two to keep seeing each other."
"I assure you, Rude, that Reno will not listen to me any more than he has to you. He has not in the past, and I doubt he will in the future. Besides, I find it difficult to take your request to heart, as I do take some pleasure in his company."
Rude continued with his pleas, but Reno noticed that Rufus wasn't looking at him anymore.
Rufus was staring at the ceiling.
Reno followed his gaze, and realized what the blonde was looking at.
Rude was broken from his rationale by a quick dash by Rufus around the large desk and a broken yell from the blonde. The tallest Turk watched as his colleague leapt forward to restrain the Vice President.
And Rufus Shinra did something that neither of them anticipated.
He fainted.
"What the hell?" was all that Rude could think to say, but he was again ignored.
Reno dropped to the ground with the blonde, fanning him and trying to wake him up. Rufus wasn't unconscious for long, and he awoke in much the same state as before he had fallen.
"No…don't leave me!" Rufus yelled in a panic, beginning to hyperventilate.
"Rufus, she's gone. I'm sorry."
"Mother, you can't leave me…"
"She's gone, Rufus. There's nothing you can do."
Rude, wide-eyed, backed away.
"I can't let this happen to you!"
"It's not your fault. It was never your fault. She's gone."
"I…I could never save you…"
"Rude, could I ask you a favor?"
Rude simply nodded.
"Stay out of our business."
"I…I couldn't…"
"Rufus, I'm sorry."
Much to Reno's dismay, he didn't receive a mission briefing from Tseng that day, or the next, while Rude was out on an important assignment to gather information on a rebel group based in the slums called AVALANCHE, named for its goal to collapse Shinra incorporated and supposedly bring peace to Midgar and the world, and capitalized to mock Shinra's own SOLDIER.
What bullshit.
Reno was stuck at the apartment alone with the coeurl--which Rufus had jokingly dubbed "Dark Nation"--while everybody else had important work to do.
And to think, at any other time, Reno would have jumped at the chance to have a day off.
But he was bored, damn it, and feeling highly unappreciated.
Dark Nation mewed at him, staring at him with those sickly cute, ever-wide yellow eyes.
"What?" asked Reno annoyedly.
"Mew?" answered Dark Nation.
"You hungry or something?" asked Reno annoyedly.
"Mew!" answered Dark nation.
"You understand me?"
"Mew."
"Creepy thing."
Dark Nation jumped into his lap, stared up at him, and mewed again.
Reno reached for the creature hesitantly and started to stroke its head.
The coeurl began to purr.
"Creepy, but cute. I'm surprised Rufus actually agreed to keep you. You're not scary enough. I always thought if he had a pet, it'd kill people or something."
Dark Nation tilted its head, and twitched the thin tentacles on its ears, and a tiny thunderbolt arced over the folds of Reno's shirt like static.
"I take that back. You probably will kill people when you get bigger. Remind me never to underfeed you, okay?"
"Mew."
Dark Nation curled up on the Turk's lap and fell asleep. Reno picked it up carefully and set it on the bed. It stirred slightly, but curled tighter and stayed sleeping.
"Rufus, what is there to do in this apartment?" Reno asked to the air.
The air didn't answer.
"Well, you have books. Lots and lots of books. And you have music." Reno looked briefly over the blonde's collections. "Boring, boring, and boring. Who would've thought you were such a geeky bookworm? And your music? You weren't kidding when you said you liked all that classical crap."
The Turk plopped down on the sofa.
"When you were stuck in here, you said, you used to draw." Reno stood again and started to rummage around the rooms, looking for paper, or better, old sketches. He found the former and a pencil, and sat down to try and follow his lover's example. He drew out some stick figures and threw the paper on a table dejectedly.
So he decided he would try and find something else to do. He looked through the blonde's bedside table, hoping to find something blackmail-worthy, like porn or photos.
Nothing interesting.
Rufus' drawers were as spotless as the visible parts of his room.
Correction; their room.
Anything under the bed?
"Ah-hah," Reno exclaimed, pulling a small carved marble box out from under the bed frame. "Jackpot."
He opened the box, and inside were various faded photographs, most of them of Virginia. Looking at her, she looked strikingly like her son, who appeared in a couple of pictures as well, but much younger and much thinner.
Virginia, in what seemed to be the earlier photos, was beautiful and flawless. She had a face like a painting or a doll, with pale, smooth skin and pink-tinged lips and cheeks. Her red-orange hair framed her face, continuing past her shoulders sometimes tied back loosely and sometimes free and wavy.
In the newer, less crumpled pictures, her face was more drawn and angular, her cheeks and lips less rosy, and her then-shorter hair almost always tied back in a careless bun.
Rufus, in the pictures with Virginia seemed to be hiding behind his mother, his bright, wide blue eyes shining out like the coeurl's when it was afraid. They matched Virginia's in color in the photos, not yet icy and death-like.
He was thin and lanky, already tall, but not nearly as statuesque. No, that was his mother there, while he was small and fragile.
It was hard to believe that this child had become the man that Reno knew now, even though the redhead had seen Rufus at times when his childish frailty showed through.
"I see you found my old pictures," came the voice of the man who had replaced that child.
Reno hurriedly tried to replace them in their box.
"Don't. It's time that I left my past behind."
"Those pictures are all that's left of her."
"She's gone, Reno. She no longer exists. My family legacy destroyed her. All that I can do for her is let her go."
"That's not right. She existed, Rufus, and those pictures prove it."
"It doesn't matter anymore. Those are just pictures. All that's left is for them to burn like she did."
"She was your mother, Rufus."
"I don't have a mother."
Rufus took the photographs from Reno, and he threw them in the stove. Both men watched dismally as they went up in flames.
Her name was Virginia.
Early the next morning, Reno awoke to a quiet room. He looked at the bedside clock. It was too early for him to be awake, and even too early for Rufus to be.
Even the sounds of Dark Nation were absent.
Chills ran down the redhead's spine. He sat up and looked around. Everything was dark and empty. Even the shadows of the furniture seemed to loom drearily in the dense morning shade.
Reno felt completely and utterly alone, and he didn't like it. He felt the other side of the bed, and felt only mattress and sheets.
He stood quickly and fumbled for the lights. As his eyes adjusted, he realized how alone he really was. Rufus had disappeared, Dark Nation with him.
It was almost an hour later, as the Turk ran around the Shinra building futilely, looking for any sign of the blonde, that he found Janice, who told him solemnly that the Vice President had left for Junon and had listed no time of return.
"He told me to tell you not to try and contact him. Between you and me, he seemed depressed to be leaving. I think you've been the only happiness he's had in a while. He cares about you, you know. I can see it in the way he brightens up when you come to visit. But don't tell him I said that. He's fussy about his personal life, you know," Janice told Reno consolingly.
"Do you know why he left?"
"All he said was that he had to, but not much more than that. He's moving everything over to his Junon offices, though. Not like when he usually goes over there. I think he's going to be gone for a long while, if you ask me."
"He didn't tell you anything?"
"I'm sorry, but no. I'll try and keep you updated with any information I find out, okay? That's about all I can do. I wish I could help more, but I do what I can."
"Thanks, Janice."
Reno walked into Rufus' empty office and sat down on the floor.
Miya's Note: Well, after a long, LONG delay, here's Chapter 21, the end of the first part of BAU. Next, is the Interlude, and then the beginning of the second "half".
I told you this was going to be a long story. If you wanted, you could even say that this is the end of "Book 1". It IS novel-length already.
Ah, yes, and the next couple of chapters (22: The Diety's Concubine (That's where it is!) and #23: Title Unknown) shouldn't be too long in coming, as I have a lot of the material in them written already. It just has to be typed up, so you guys shouldn't be kept waiting as long as with this one. (Again, sorry about that!)
I hope you enjoyed!